ComfortDelGro C52 Corporation C52 through its indirect subsidiary, CDC NSW, has been awarded an outer metropolitan bus contract in New South Wales (NSW) worth over A$200 million ($180 million).
This comes hot on the heels of three other successful tenders awarded by the NSW government resulting in two contracts for Sydney metropolitan Region 4, and combined Regions 12 and 14 just seven months earlier. Combined, the three contracts are worth more than A$1.9 billion.
This latest award is the Outer Metropolitan Bus Service Contract for Region 7, which covers the NSW Central Coast, including The Entrance, Gosford, Wyong and the surrounding areas. The contract, which will commence services in July 2024 and run for eight years, has been awarded by the NSW government to Red Bus CDC NSW – a 50:50 joint venture (JV) company between CDC NSW and Red Bus Services.
Red Bus Services is an established NSW bus operator with more than 80 years of experience in serving the Central Coast community. It has teamed up with CDC NSW for Region 7 tender to deliver better value based on their combined strengths, expertise and resources to serve the more than two million passengers expected each year.
More than just providing bus services to the community in Region 7, the contract will also create employment opportunities as CDC NSW expands its operations. It expects to have a workforce of over 2,500 across NSW, which will be an increase of 150 employees from its current strength.
With this win, CDC NSW operates four bus service contracts in the Outer Metropolitan areas in Regions 2, 7, 8 and 11. It also operates two contracts in Metropolitan Sydney in Regions 4 and 14.
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With a total investment of $1.2 billion to-date, Australia is now the group’s single largest overseas investment destination. It is one of the largest public scheduled bus operators in Australia, and also provides non-scheduled bus services such as school and corporate charters. For the year ended Dec 31, 2022, the Australian businesses chalked up a revenue of $690.1 million.
ComfortDelGro managing director and group CEO, Cheng Siak Kian, says: “We have been operating in Australia for 18 years now and continually aim to do better in our service offerings and delivery. This is because Australia is and continues to be a significant part of our business. We have significantly enhanced our tendering resourcing and capability in recent years and achieved multiple contract tender successes in Australia and New Zealand.”
Shares in ComfortDelGro last traded at $1.18 on July 3.
