North Sydney Bus Charters acquired by EV bus outfit

afr.com:

After almost a year on the auction block, Sydney’s largest privately owned coach charter company has been sold to electric bus outfit TrueGreen.

TrueGreen is making the acquisition after a raising earlier in the year.  Chris Hopkins

Street Talk can reveal the Michel Van Maanen-run TrueGreen will acquire North Sydney Bus Charters in a deal that values the group at as much as $100 million, after securing funding for a big roll-up play. That’s expected to mean more acquisitions in what’s a fragmented industry before the end of the year, sources said.

As Street Talk reported in March, TrueGreen has been in discussions with investors for funding as it considers listing on the ASX. Its brands distribute, manufacture and assemble zero-emissions buses. Its Nexport subsidiary was the largest electric bus supplier to the NSW government

The purchase of North Sydney Bus Charters, owned by Sydney businessman Scott Riley, is slated to be the start of mass electrification of buses in the city. The sales process was being run by PKF Corporate, which was pitching the company as a premium charter hire service. It has a fleet of 225 luxury and standard coaches, and mini-coaches, performing charter work for schools, corporate events and the like, as well as shuttle services.

Riley, a former tennis pro and coach who started the business to run school children to and from tennis centres in 2002, was looking for a deep-pocketed investor to take a stake in the company and help fuel further growth plans, prospective buyers were told during the sales process.

Last year, the business was understood to be making about $50 million in revenue, with an EBITDA margin of about 33 per cent. The revenue was said to have been up 15 per cent a year over the