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Addison Lee, the UK-based private-hire taxi and courier firm, has agreed to be purchased by Singapore-listed transport conglomerate ComfortDelGro in a deal valuing the enterprise at £269.1mn.
ComfortDelGro, a multinational firm with operations starting from taxis to rail and London buses, is shopping for Addison Lee from a consortium led by chief government Liam Griffin and Cheyne Capital.
On Wednesday ComfortDelGro mentioned the acquisition, to be achieved by means of its UK subsidiary CityFleet Networks, would allow it to develop into the “premium mobility phase” and assist its shift in direction of clear power autos.
The mixed group’s taxi and personal rent community will include greater than 34,000 autos globally upon completion of the deal.
The transaction marks the third change of possession in simply over a decade for Addison Lee, because the London taxi market has been disrupted by ride-hailing apps resembling Uber, in addition to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Non-public fairness group Carlyle purchased the enterprise from the Griffin household, Addison Lee’s founders, for £300mn in 2013. The acquisition got here simply as ride-hailing apps had been starting to shake up the London market.
Griffin, the son of Addison Lee’s founder, purchased the enterprise again in 2020 “at a big low cost” to the £300mn as a part of a consortium of traders led by Cheyne Capital.
The house owners restructured the enterprise and refocused it on London’s premium and company clients.
“Now we have sat on this premium area of interest we expect individuals are ready to pay for,” Griffin informed the Monetary Occasions in March. He’ll stay as chief government of the corporate, which returned to revenue in 2023 following the pandemic.
On Wednesday, Griffin mentioned ComfortDelGro had “a transparent understanding of our clients’ and drivers’ wants” and would carry “important worldwide trade experience to the enterprise”.
The acquisition will increase the Singaporean group’s presence within the UK, the place it already operates providers together with the Megabus inter-city coach service and practically a fifth of the London bus community by means of its Metroline enterprise.
It mentioned Addison Lee would additionally complement CityFleet’s current operations in north-west England and Scotland.
“Past increasing our footprint within the UK, this acquisition will allow us to make use of Addison Lee’s experience to deepen and scale our premium point-to-point functionality globally,” mentioned ComfortDelGro’s chief government Cheng Siak Kian.
ComfortDelGro’s worldwide operations embody its French unit, which can start working a part of the Paris Métro Line 15 by the top of 2025.
It’s the largest taxi operator in Singapore, the place it additionally operates a fleet of greater than 3,000 buses and 83km of rail community.
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