Fullers Ferries has just added a new 350 to 400-seat ferry to the Waiheke Island run and has two more vessels on order.
Fullers Ferries has just added a new 350 to 400-seat ferry to the Waiheke Island run and has two more vessels on order.
Sir Brian Souter spending $100 million over three years in expansion scheme.
Bus and ferry operator Souter Group is flagging the possibility of a public listing as it puts down the accelerator on growth.
The company, owned by international transport investor Sir Brian Souter and his family, was spending about $100 million over a three-year period and mulling an NZX listing to help with expansion.
"We've got a plethora of activity on right now. We think this is a defining moment for the company," he said during a visit to his New Zealand operations.
The company owns Fullers Ferries, 360 Discovery Cruises, Howick & Eastern buses, ManaBus.com and this week finalised the purchase of Rotorua-based coachline and urban service operator Reesby Buses.
With the purchase of that 25-bus fleet, Souter Group's bus and ferry businesses together would now be within the Inmotion Group.
Souter said there had been "informal" discussions with people in the New Zealand market.
"This could be a company for a potential IPO at some point. With the growth opportunities that we have we could have an indigenous business here that could be interesting."
The timing of a potential listing of Inmotion was not certain but could be more than a year away.
"It's just something that we're toying with at this time."
ManaBus.com bought Naked Bus earlier this year and there was work to do with that fleet as it had been undercapitalised.
"We've got some big stuff to sort out - we're talking towards the end of next year when we could consider it [an IPO]."
The only IPO this year has been transport and logistics company Fliway, and while he acknowledged the economy was softening, public transport operations were essential services that had held up during the global financial crisis.
Souter said his company's assets had a value of between $170 million and $180 million. Sales were around $110 million a year, he said.
The company had just added a new 350 to 400-seat ferry to the Waiheke Island run and had two more on order. The bus fleet was also being rapidly expanded with 15 New Zealand-assembled double deckers added to Auckland and long-haul routes and 10 more on order.
He said the company's buses carried more than one million passengers during the past year.
There was scope for growth on medium-range routes - Whangarei, Hamilton and Rotorua to Auckland and Napier to Wellington.
Souter has a 26 per cent stake in Stagecoach, which operates in Britain, Europe and the United States. Stagecoach operated here until it was sold to Infratil for $250 million in 2005.
