Gold Coast Surfside Buslines owner Transit Australia Group sells to SkyBus operator in reported $200M transaction

Gold Coast transportation giant Transit Australia Group has sold in Australia’s largest ever sale involving a private bus company.

GOLD Coast transportation giant Transit Australia Group has sold to the owner of SkyBus in Australia’s largest ever sale involving a private bus company.

TAG announced yesterday its shareholders have agreed to sell the Robina-based operator of Surfside Buslines to AATS Group, which owns and operates airport mass transit operator, SkyBus.

The sale was earlier reported to be worth at least $200 million.

Melbourne-based SkyBus, which employs 500 people and has services at airports across Australasia, has been on an aggressive expansion path in recent years.

Transit Australia Group CEO Michael McGee pictured at the company’s bus factory in Burleigh Heads. Picture: Jono Searle.

In 2017 it expanded to the Glitter Strip after buying the Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle from TAG.

Last year it announced the launch of a service between Byron Bay and Gold Coast Airport.

TAG, launched by brothers Tony and Joe Calabro in 1989 after they purchased Surfside Buslines, today is the largest privately owned public transport operator in Queensland, with a staff of 1400 operating a fleet of 700 buses.

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It also runs Sunbus with services on the Sunshine Coast, Rockhampton, Townsville and Cairns and has manufacturing and engineering businesses including ­Bustech.

In recent years it has also expanded its international footprint, particularly in the Middle East where it signed a lucrative deal to provide electric buses for the new city of Dubai South.

Transit Australia Group operates Surfside Buslines. Picture: JERAD WILLIAMS

In 2017 Bustech secured a $45 million contract to supply Metro Tasmania with 100 low-emission buses, partnering with Tasmanian company Elphinstone to use local capabilities while providing a boost to local manufacturing.

The contract, with the Tasmanian Government’s transport arm Metro Australia, is the largest investment in public transport in the state’s history.

An alliance with South Australian company Precision Components will build operational electric urban buses for trial in Adelaide’s public transport network.

AATS is owned by Canadian pension fund OPTrust and senior management.