Mana Coach Services is being eyed by at least four transport operators, including three from Australia, keen to enter the Wellington bus market.
The High Court at Wellington stopped New Zealand Bus, which owns Stagecoach in New Zealand, from buying Mana last month because the deal would substantially lessen competition. Mana and New Zealand Bus had not competed for contracts in each other's patch.
Mana's owners, mainly associated with the Waddell family, told the court they would sell the company to another operator if the acquisition by New Zealand Bus was barred.
Mana operates a fleet of about 110 buses, including urban, and touring and charter buses. Stagecoach Wellington has about 370 buses under several brands.
Three Australian companies gave evidence during a two-week trial --Transdev-TSL, Veolia Transport and Swan Transit. All said they would look to enter the market by acquiring an existing operator. Bidding for individual contracts was too risky because of the small size of the contracts, and the lack of information about passenger numbers, revenue, costs, depot locations, and staff availability.
The director of Christchurch-based Ritchies Transport, Andrew Ritchie, told the court that the company had been in the Wellington market for a long time. However, the contracts for subsidised bus services, typically for between 10 and 15 buses, were too small to come in as a new operator.
Ritchies is New Zealand's largest privately owned bus operator, with a fleet of more than 600 buses. It operates urban bus services in Auckland, Timaru and Marlborough. It also has charter, tour and long distance services, including the Intercity brand. Mr Ritchie said Ritchies would not necessarily compete with New Zealand Bus if it bought Mana.
Transdev-TSL executive general manager, Ross Mackiggan said that, if it bought Mana, its strategy would be to compete with New Zealand Bus and take market share. French-owned Transdev operates trams in Melbourne, buses in Sydney and ferries in Brisbane. It unsuccessfully tendered to form a joint venture with the regional council to buy Wellington's urban rail service from Tranz Rail in 2002.
Veolia Transport director Peter Lodge told the court that it would look to buy an existing operation with about 150 buses to enter the New Zealand market. Mr Lodge said the New Zealand market was characterised by high entry barriers, but those became an advantage once the company was established. Veolia was Australia's largest private transport operator, including buses and trains in Australia's main centres.
It also operates the Auckland rail services in partnership with the Auckland Regional Transport Authority.
Swan Transit director Neil Smith said his company was interested in the New Zealand market, but it would require a contract substantially larger than the maximum existing contract size of 22 buses in Wellington. Swan Transit operates 283 buses in Perth, 560 buses in South Australia and ferries in Brisbane.
