Fylde minibus firm bought in Â£200,000 deal

Elite Minibus and Coach Hire which has been bought by Rotala

Birmingham-based Rotala has invested £200,000 to buy Elite Minibus and Coach Services.

The firm based in Feltons Yard, Higher Moor Road, Blackpool, has a range of four to 53 seater vehicles and has been established on the Fylde for 28 years.

It runs several school and college contracts, plus a service contract for the local authority – Service Number 87 between Clevleys and Poulton.

Together with its private hire arm it generates annual revenues of about £500,000.

In a statement to the stock market, Rotala said: “This acquisition will broaden the range of services which Preston Bus is able to offer in this area of Lancashire and add to its geographical reach.”

Last month it raised £2.4m through a share placing to have a fighting fund for new acquisitions.

Rotala has had a turnover in the past couple of years of just over £50m and is aiming to generate revenue approaching £85m following its expansion.

It has operations in Bristol Essex and Manchester and is the owner of Preston Bus which it bought in January 2011.

In the LSE statement it said: “This business, with its small number of existing staff, will be integrated into the outstation which Rotala already operates in Blackpool through its subsidiary company, Preston Bus.

“This acquisition will broaden the range of services which Preston Bus is able to offer in this area of Lancashire and add to its geographical reach.”

It added that Elite’s vehicle fleet had a fair value of £150,000 and that Rotala would not assume any other assets or liabilities of any materiality on acquisition.

“On this basis the Acquisition is expected to generate about £50,000 of positive goodwill on consolidation and is expected to be earnings enhancing from completion.”

Director Bob Dunn said today: “We already operate a few services in Blackpool , eight at the moment and with this will give us another six.

“We have always seen the area as one we wanted to expand into and we have other things planned for the wider North West.

“We want to develop the whole region with more of a coach operation, but are also looking at bus opportunities.”