From today's Straits Times:
Newcastle is about 200km north of sydney. it was the area which
experienced heavy storms 1 month ago
TRANSPORT giant ComfortDelGro has bought another New South Wales
(NSW) bus firm, its second Australian deal in 20 months, and with
indications of more to come.
It has paid A$14.5 million (S$19 million) for Toronto Bus Services,
which runs 84 buses out of three depots in the Newcastle region
north of Sydney.
The deal - done through a unit of 51 per cent-owned ComfortDelGro
Cabcharge - adds to the group's fleet of about 750 buses in
Australia.
It also gives ComfortDelGro Cabcharge 24 per cent of the NSW bus
business.
ComfortDelGro Cabcharge deputy chairman Reginald Kermode told The
Straits Times earlier that 'we'd like to have our footprint right
across Australia'.
The purchase is not expected to have any material impact on the
firm's net tangible assets per share and earnings per share for
this year.
It comes a week after ComfortDelGro forked out 84 million yuan
($16.8 million) for a taxi joint venture in Nanjing, China. It was
the group's first investment in the capital of Jiangsu province,
bringing to 13 the number of cities in which it operates in
China.
In all, ComfortDelGro has spent more than $800 million to date in
its overseas thrust.
But recently, the group and its local rival SMRT Corp lost out to
British-based services group Serco in a bid to run a new rail
system in Dubai.
Serco has won the contract, said to be worth about £400 million
(S$1.22 billion), to operate and maintain the first two lines of
the Dubai Metro. The 70km lines will be running in 2009.
It is understood that future portions of the Metro, which will have
an eventual network of 300km, will be up for tender in the coming
years.
