ComfortDelGro unit buys school bus business in New South Wales for A$2m

COMFORTDELGRO Corporation Australia (CDC) has acquired assets of a school bus business in Australia for a total consideration of A$2 million (S$2 million), the transport operator said in a bourse filing on Friday.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of mainboard-listed ComfortDelGro C52 will acquire from KA & VK Stubbs five buses and a rural and regional bus service contract of three school routes in Narrabri, New South Wales.

CDC said it will combine the Stubbs contract with its existing operations from October. With the new assets, CDC's fleet in Narrabri and Wee Waa will increase to a total of 21 buses.

Tony Hopkins, CDC's regional Australia division chief executive officer, said that the contract acquisition is "a small but meaningful addition" to CDC's operations.

Post-acquisition, CDC's total bus fleet size will increase to more than 275 buses in regional New South Wales and close to 2,500 in Australia.

CDC currently operates in six states and territories in Australia - New South Wales, Victoria, the Australia Capital Territory, Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Earlier in July, CDC had announced that its Queensland unit is expanding its bus service operations by acquiring the business assets of Young's Bus Service, the largest bus operator in the Rockhampton region, for A$17.5 million.

ComfortDelGro also said it is looking to list CDC on the Australian Securities Exchange via an initial public offering in the last quarter of 2021, a move which will unlock the value of the group's land transport business assets in Australia.

Shares of ComfortDelGro were flat at S$1.51 as at 1.11pm on Friday.

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