SIR Brian Souter has added another transport business to his empire with the acquisition of a 75% stake in Finnish intercity coach operator Onnibus Oy, which is rebranding as OnniBus.com
SIR Brian Souter has added another transport business to his empire with the acquisition of a 75% stake in Finnish intercity coach operator Onnibus Oy, which is rebranding as OnniBus.com
The former bus conductor has overseen the multi-million-pound acquisition by his family investment office Souter Investments with a view to replicating the success he has had in Poland with Polski Bus.
Sir Brian said: "We are delighted to add OnniBus.com to our portfolio of global transport businesses.
"We believe there is a fantastic opportunity in the Finnish intercity express coach market and we see enormous potential in the OnniBus.com business as it seeks to establish a market-leading position."
The investment will see an operator with just a handful of vehicles develop a national network of express coach services with a fleet of new coaches.
There are also plans to boost the three-year-old company's operational and web infrastructure.
Pekka Motto, managing director of OnniBus.com, said: "The investment represents a landmark for OnniBus.com.
"It will provide not only the support of a strong balance sheet and access to substantial funds for growth, but also access to Souter's invaluable experience, knowledge and expertise in the public transport industry."
Highland Global Transport, Souter Investments' transport arm, already has investments in the UK, New Zealand, Poland and Turkey.
Stagecoach veteran Roger Bowker, former chief executive of Polski Bus, has been appointed executive chairman of Onni Bus.
He said: "Our experience in the UK, USA, Canada and Poland has demonstrated that there is a demand for fast, modern and innovative intercity express coach travel."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article