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Hong Kong-listed Hans Energy to become majority shareholder in Citybus parent to accelerate hydrogen-powered transport

  • Hans Energy has acquired 54.44 per cent of the shares in Citybus parent Bravo Transport for HK$2.72 billion (US$348 million)
  • Company’s ‘strategic development of the hydrogen industry’ aligns with Citybus’s net-zero emissions goals, CEO says

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Citybus’s first hydrogen-powered double-deck bus was put into service on February 25, 2024. Photo: Sam Tsang
Yujie Xue

Hong Kong-listed Hans Energy has acquired a majority stake in Bravo Transport, the parent company of the city’s largest bus operator Citybus, in a move the company said will accelerate adoption of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles and help Hong Kong’s net-zero transition.

Hans Energy acquired 54.44 per cent of the shares in Bravo for HK$2.72 billion (US$348 million), giving it 70 per cent ownership after the completion of the transaction, the company said on Friday.

Hong Kong-based private-equity firm Templewater, which owns the remaining 30 per cent, acquired Bravo Transport and Citybus in 2020. It will become a minority shareholder of Hans Energy, with around 6.59 per cent of the equity shares issued at HK$0.7961 per share.

“This acquisition aims to vertically integrate the energy supplier and key end-user,” said Hans Energy CEO Yang Dong. Hans Energy will use its expertise in petroleum product trading and logistics to reduce fuel costs for Citybus, while its “strategic development of the hydrogen industry” aligns with Citybus’s net-zero emissions goal, he said.

Hans Energy, which trades refined oil and petrochemical products and owns a loading terminal, jetties and fuel storage tanks in Dongguan, Guangdong province, is transitioning its focus from the traditional energy sector to renewable energy.

In 2020 it became a shareholder in Bravo Transport, which then owned both Citybus and New World First Bus, which have since merged under the Citybus name. Last year Hans Energy invested in Hong Kong’s first hydrogen refuelling station, which allowed Citybus’s first hydrogen-powered double-decker bus to hit the road earlier this year.
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