Goldbell Group confirms BlueSG acquisition; deal valued at more than S$25m

VEHICLE leasing and distribution firm Goldbell Group confirmed on Friday that it is proposing to acquire electric car-sharing player BlueSG, with the deal to be completed by August this year.

In an exclusive interview, Goldbell chief executive Arthur Chua told The Business Times that the BlueSG acquisition will complement Goldbell's corporate leasing business while advancing the group's vision of becoming a leader in future mobility.

"We believe in the twin engines of disruptive growth - the yin and yang of venture investing and venture building," he said. "We have invested in mobility companies for the last six years, and have been building mobility companies over the last five years. We believe that once we create these ecosystems, we can repeatedly find S-curves of disruptive growth."

Mr Chua declined to reveal the value of the deal, which has been in the works since June 2020, 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 S$20-25 million.

He shared that Goldbell will invest an additional S$70 million over the next five years to refresh the fleet and expand Goldbell's car-sharing business regionally, with BlueSG serving as the global headquarters. Bollore Group, which currently owns BlueSG, will retain and continue to operate the charging infrastructure that serves the electric vehicles in Singapore.

The acquisition comes under Goldbell's Future Mobility division, which focuses on solutions related to connectivity, autonomous technologies, electric vehicles and the shared economy model. "BlueSG falls very nicely into both the electric pillar as well as the shared economy pillar, so that's how it fits in from the vision perspective," said Mr Chua.

It also strategically complements the group's existing leasing business, as Goldbell has observed a global trend of corporate clients wanting to purchase car-sharing credits as an alternative or complement to traditional leasing services. Kelvin Tay, managing director of Goldbell's Future Mobility division, noted that BlueSG will be a "strong base" for Goldbell to start offering this service, as it is an established brand with more than 650 vehicles, about 100,000 subscriptions sold and 1.7 million rentals to date.

Despite the fact that BlueSG has been loss-making since its launch in 2017, Mr Chua believes that Goldbell will be able to unlock the car-sharing outfit's growth potential with the right research and development (R&D) and technology capabilities.

One such capability is fleet re-balancing using spatial temporal optimisation, an area in which Goldbell has expertise and experience through SWAT Mobility, a smart mobility firm that Mr Chua co-founded. This technology lever would help in identifying pick-up hotspots and redistributing the cars efficiently, so users get their vehicles more quickly and the cars are utilised better for higher profitability.

Goldbell has committed to retaining all of BlueSG's employees after the acquisition, and expects a return on its investment in four to six years. Said Mr Chua: "We are experts in vehicles and fleet management, which includes maintenance capabilities, and we believe that we can manage and maintain the fleet in a more economical manner."

More broadly, Goldbell sees demand for car-sharing services and government support for electric vehicles rising steadily. BlueSG and its competitors enjoyed an increase in rentals following the "circuit-breaker" period, and ridership has continued to grow over the past several months.

Meanwhile, the Singapore government has committed to deploying at least 28,000 charging points over the next 10 years to speed up clean energy vehicle adoption. "We expect the government to make more positive announcements with regard to the charging infrastructure moving forward. That's how we read the market," said Mr Tay.

Singapore's shift towards polycentric town planning will also reduce the distance that people have to travel to school or the workplace, making car-sharing more practical than owning a vehicle. Goldbell is considering adding electric vans to the fleet, which will expand the use cases to include last-mile deliveries.

When asked about user feedback on the BlueSG driving experience, Mr Chua said Goldbell has heard comments highlighting room for improvement and will look into them when it takes over the business.

"With our maintenance capabilities, we will definitely look into ensuring that the downtime of the vehicles and quality of the vehicles will be acceptable to the consumers. Part of the S$70 million that we will be investing into the business will be used to replace existing vehicles when they are due for change or beyond economical repair, and to inject new vehicles to improve the customer experience," he said.