Bank of China contributes to a $400 million AUD syndicated loan to AATS Group for the acquisition of a 100% stake in Transit Australia Group

Project narrative

On April 2019, it was announced that AATS Group — an Australian-based multinational bus company that wholly owns a number of bus and railway services operations in Australia and New Zealand, including the SkyBus airport transit bus services, that is owned by its senior management and its majority shareholder Canadian pension fund OPTrust — announced that entered in an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of Transit Australia Group Pty Ltd (TAG) — a Queensland and New South Wales-based multi-service bus operator — from its shareholders for a reported $200 million AUD. At the time of the acquisition, TAG employed over 1,600 people and operated over 630 buses across Queensland and New South Wales. TAG provided government-contracted metropolitan route, school, regional, general charter, and event bus services. Its businesses including urban mass transit focused Surfside Buslines, which provided bus services across the Gold Coast and northern New South Wales, and Sunbus, which provided bus services in Sunshine Coast, Rockhampton, Townsville, and Cairns. The acquisition did not include TAG's manufacturing business BusTech, Australia's only advanced bus original equipment manufacturer. In 2019, a syndicate of banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) — entered into a $400 million AUD syndicated senior loan agreement with AATS Group to support the acquisition. The acquisition, once completed, was expected to make AATS Group one of the largest bus operators in Australia and to be Australia's largest private bus acquisition. Subject to regulatory approval, the acquisition was expected to be completed prior to June 2019. The acquisition closed on April 30, 2019. After the acquisition of TAG, in August 2019 AATS Group rebranded itself as the Kinetic Group.