Bravo Transport

Bravo Transport Services Limited (), simply Bravo Transport is a Hong Kong public transport company, which owns two of the city's bus operators Citybus and New World First Bus. Another subsidiary, Bravo Media, is the agency for the company's exterior and interior bus advertising concessions.

The company is majority owned by private equity firm Templewater (through its subsidiary Templewater Bravo), with remaining shareholding held by Hong Kong-listed company Hans Energy and British bus company Ascendal Group. The CEO of Bravo Transport is Adam Leishman, the founder of Ascendal Group.

Its slogan is "Connecting people and our city" (彼此連城一線).

History

Bravo Transport was set up as a consortium between Templewater (90.8%), Hans Energy (8.6%) and Ascendal Group (0.6%). Templewater is a private equity fund founded by Investec Bank and Cliff Zhang. Hans Energy is an energy company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Ascendal is a United Kingdom-based bus company founded by Adam Leishman in 2018 and has operations in Cambridgeshire and Chile.

On 21 August 2020, it was announced that Bravo Transport would acquire NWS Transport Services for from NWS Holdings, including the subsidiaries of Citybus and New World First Bus (NWFB). The two subsidiaries are two of the three main bus operators in Hong Kong. Ascendal acts as the operating partner in the consortium, with founder Leishman becoming the CEO of Bravo Transport.

In October 2020, the acquisition was finalised, and NWS Transport Services was also renamed Bravo Transport, along with the announcement of a new Chinese name for the company. Three potential logo designs were also shortlisted and employees were invited to vote on their preferred design. The preferred logo was announced on 9 November 2020.

In October 2021, Bravo Media, another subsidiary of the company, was appointed the agency for the company's exterior and interior bus advertising concessions, commencing on 1 November 2021. Bravo Media would be the exclusive agency of bus advertising until 30 June 2023. In doing so, Bravo Transport terminated its existing three-year contract with Bus Power Limited mutually under pre-agreed terms. The contract with Bus Power was signed before Bravo Transport's acquisition in July 2020.

In December 2021, it was announced that Hans Energy has agreed to acquire an additional 7% shareholding in Bravo Transport. This would alter the shareholding of the company to Templewater (83.9%), Hans Energy (15.56%) and Ascendal (0.54%). , this has not been finalised.

In January 2022, Bravo Transport sold most of its Octopus Holdings Limited stake to MTR Corporation, and the small remainder to another company. This was attributed to the continued losses the company was facing due to COVID-19 impacts on its airport and cross-border routes.

Merger of Citybus and New World First Bus

In July 2021, Leishman admitted that to keep business sustainable, a possible option would be a merger between both Citybus and NWFB. He said that there were no firm plans on this option and it would be dependent on the renewal of two bus franchises expiring in 2023. He attributed the loss of ridership due to COVID-19 and the opening of the Tuen Ma line.

In July 2022, Bravo Transport announced that it would be discontinuing the New World First Bus brand, and the NWFB operations will be merged into Citybus on 1 July 2023 when the bus franchises are renewed.

See also

*NWS Holdings
*Ascendal Group
*Transport International - parent company of rival operator Kowloon Motor Bus

References

{{reflist

External links

Bravo Transport website
(in English)

Bus companies of Hong Kong