Street Talk

Australia’s No.1 bus operator on board for $4b-plus strategic review

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Jan 7, 2024 – 1.31pm

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Kinetic Group, the country’s biggest bus operator with a global footprint and ambitions to capture a bigger slice of trains and trams networks, is revving up to add a deep-pocketed investor to its register.

Street Talk can reveal Kinetic’s owners, Canadian pension fund OPTrust and London-listed investor Foresight Group, ran an investment bank beauty parade in December to hire advisers for a strategic review of the transport operator. A bank is expected to be mandated in January.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column.

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review.