FirstGroup buys York Pullman Bus Co for undisclosed sum

FirstGroup on Friday signed a deal to buy York Pullman Bus Company for an undisclosed sum.

York Pullman provides home-to-school and college contracted services and private hire operations including rail replacement services, and operates a small number of local bus routes on behalf of several local authorities.

It has a mixed fleet of more than 130 vehicles with varying passenger capacity which has enabled it to build a broad range of customers. For the year ended to December 2022, York Pullman reported revenues of around £10m and profit before interest and tax of £2m.

"York Pullman has a strong presence in regional and adjacent services operations in York and surrounding towns in North Yorkshire. The acquisition plays strongly into the group's strategy, providing profitable growth opportunities in adjacent services contracted and commercial markets, with the ability to develop this into other locations across the UK," gthe company said in a statement.

Tom James, managing Director of York Pullman, will remain with the company in the same post and continue to run it on a standalone basis, as well as contributing to the development of the First Bus coach services growth strategy.

FirstGroup said that it expected its fiscal 2024 year-end adjusted net cash position would be £60-70m, with around £30m of the ongoing share buyback programme still to be completed.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com