13/09/2005
Stagecoach Group plc (“Stagecoach”) is pleased to announce the creation of a new joint venture that will operate the Scottish services of Stagecoach’s megabus.com and Motorvator, and ComfortDelGro’s Scottish Citylink.
On 12 September 2005, Stagecoach acquired 35% of the share capital of Scottish Citylink Limited (“Citylink”) in return for transferring certain rights to the Motorvator and megabus.com operations in Scotland. ComfortDelGro owns the remaining 65% of Citylink’s share capital.
The new joint venture will operate services under the megabus.com and Scottish Citylink brands, and will be the leading provider of express coach services in Scotland. The joint venture is expected to have annual revenues of approximately £18 million.
Megabus.com services outside of Scotland will not form part of the joint venture, except for cross-border services between Scotland and England.
Brian Souter, Stagecoach Group Chief Executive, commented: “Megabus.com and Scottish Citylink are two powerful brands in Scotland, which have built up a loyal base of customers in different inter-city travel markets. This new joint venture will allow us to develop the quality of our products and offer an even better range of excellent value travel options for our customers.
“We remain committed to offering passengers a wide choice of services and fares to suit their individual needs. We believe the new venture will make our collective operations more efficient, putting us in an excellent position to attract more people away from their cars and onto our inter-city services.”
ComfortDelGro Managing Director and Group CEO, Mr Kua Hong Pak, said: “We are pleased to be entering into this agreement with Stagecoach. By working together and leveraging on our two strong brands we will be able to operate more efficiently, improve the quality of our services and focus our efforts on jointly growing our business.”
For further information, please contact:
Martin Griffiths, Finance Director, Stagecoach Group plc
Tel: 01738 442 111
Steven Stewart, Head of Media & Public Affairs, Stagecoach Group plc
Tel: 01738 442 111
Email: steven.stewart@stagecoachgroup.com
Tammy Tan, Group Corporate Communications Officer, ComfortDelGro Corporation
Tel: (00 65) 6383-8021/9683-0732
Email: : tammytan@comfortdelgro.com
John Kiely, Smithfield
Tel: 020 7360 4900
NOTES TO EDITORS
Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group is a leading international passenger transport provider, with operations in the UK, United States, Canada and New Zealand. The company has 30,000 employees and operates 13,000 buses, coaches, trains, trams and ferries. Headquartered in Perth, Scotland, the company was founded in 1980 and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Megabus.com
Megabus.com is the UK’s market-leading low-cost inter-city coach service, offering fares starting from £1. In Scotland, the company operates services linking Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Perth. Megabus.com services between Edinburgh and Glasgow are operated under the Motorvator brand.
ComfortDelGro
ComfortDelGro is the world’s second largest land transport company with a total fleet size of more than 38,700 buses, taxis and rental vehicles. Headquartered in Singapore, the Group also has operations in China, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Vietnam and Malaysia. Currently, overseas ventures account for 37% of Group revenue. The Group intends to derive half of its total revenue from abroad in the next four to six years.
Scottish Citylink
Scottish Citylink is Scotland’s leading provider of express coach services. Each year, its fleet of blue and yellow coaches transports over 3 million passengers to more than 200 destinations in Scotland.
