Goldbell acquires BlueSG; plans up to $40m investment by 2023

VEHICLE leasing and distribution company Goldbell Group announced on Monday (Oct 18) its finalisation on the acquisition of electric car-sharing player BlueSG, after the announcement was made in February 2021.

The group, in a press statement, highlighted that out of the planned S$70 million investment capital for the next five years, 60 per cent or S$40 million will be made by 2023, as part of its growth acceleration strategy.

A key priority of the investment will be the establishment of an open innovation platform in Singapore through BlueSG, which will act as a test bed for new and experimental pilot technologies.

Goldbell also noted that it is on track to expand the BlueSG fleet size with immediate effect, and that it will increase its staff strength by 20 per cent at the end of this year.

To realise BlueSG's business and technical capabilities expansion potential will be among Goldbell's immediate priorities. It aims to achieve this by developing a business model that will be replicated among other smart cities in the Asia-Pacific.

The group said that this effort will be kicked off from the establishment of BlueSG's global headquarters for car sharing by the end of 2021, which also "sets the stage" for overseas expansion.

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With the finalisation of the acquisition, Jenny Lim, who was previously BlueSG's commercial and network director, has now been appointed by Goldbell as BlueSG's head of Singapore, responsible for overall operations.

Goldbell chief executive Arthur Chua commented that since the announcement of the acquisition eight months ago, the company has been laying the groundwork to bring BlueSG to its next level of growth.

"Not only are we interested in deploying newer generation, experimental technologies in our car-sharing fleet, we are also looking forward to working with companies, as well as local institutes of higher learning and research institutes, to realise our vision to evolve the BlueSG fleet into a living lab for future mobility innovations," he noted.

Goldbell also affirmed that BlueSG customers will continue to enjoy the same services as before, following the proposed acquisition and rebranding of the BlueSG islandwide network of more than 1,500 electric vehicles charging points by a global multi-energy company, TotalEnergies.

"We look forward to working with a variety of charging infrastructure providers in Singapore and are excited about the interest that this is already generating among potential international original equipment manufacturers who are looking to tap into our BlueSG brand to showcase their new electric vehicle models, as part of our fleet expansion quest," added Chua.

In an interview with The Business Times earlier this year, Chua declined to reveal the value of the acquisition deal, but said that estimates being circulated are inaccurate and undervalued. The acquisition was first reported by The Straits Times with sources estimating the deal size at between S$20 million and S$25 million.