Reference no: EM133171499

Goldbell acquires BlueSG; plans up to $40m investment by 2023 

Vehicle leasing and distribution company Goldbell Group announced on Monday (Oct 18) its finalisation on the acquisition of electric car-sharing player BlueSG, after the announcement was made in February 2021. The group, in a press statement, highlighted that out of the planned S$70 million investment capital for the next five years, 60 per cent or S$40 million will be made by 2023, as part of its growth acceleration strategy. A key priority of the investment will be the establishment of an open innovation platform in Singapore through BlueSG, which will act as a test bed for new and experimental pilot technologies. Goldbell also noted that it is on track to expand the BlueSG fleet size with immediate effect, and that it will increase its staff strength by 20 per cent at the end of this year. To realise BlueSG's business and technical capabilities expansion potential will be among Goldbell's immediate priorities. It aims to achieve this by developing a business model that will be replicated among other smart cities in the Asia-Pacific. The group said that this effort will be kicked off from the establishment of BlueSG's global headquarters for car sharing by the end of 2021, which also "sets the stage" for overseas expansion. With the finalisation of the acquisition, Jenny Lim, who was previously BlueSG's commercial and network director, has now been appointed by Goldbell as BlueSG's head of Singapore, responsible for overall operations. Goldbell chief executive Arthur Chua commented that since the announcement of the acquisition eight months ago, the company has been laying the groundwork to bring BlueSG to its next level of growth. "Not only are we interested in deploying newer generation, experimental technologies in our car-sharing fleet, we are also looking forward to working with companies, as well as local institutes of higher learning and research institutes, to realise our vision to evolve the BlueSG fleet into a living lab for future mobility innovations," he noted. Goldbell also affirmed that BlueSG customers will continue to enjoy the same services as before, following the proposed acquisition and rebranding of the BlueSG island wide network of more than 1,500 electric vehicles charging points by a global multi-energy company, TotalEnergies. "We look forward to working with a variety of charging infrastructure providers in Singapore and are excited about the interest that this is already generating among potential international original equipment manufacturers who are looking to tap into our BlueSG brand to showcase their new electric vehicle models, as part of our fleet expansion quest," added Chua.

TotalEnergies inks deal to buy BlueSG's electric vehicle charging network 

TO French energy giant TotalEnergies has inked a deal to buy electric vehicle charging provider Bluecharge from Paris-listed transport group Bolloré. Bluecharge operates some 1,500 charge points for both private vehicles and car-sharing service BlueSG, which Bolloré is in the process of selling to Singapore commercial leasing firm Goldbell Group. Alexis Vovk, president of marketing and services at TotalEnergies, called the acquisition "a key initiative for TotalEnergies in Asia-Pacific, a region where the development of electric mobility is a major challenge, deeply linked to the energy transition". TotalEnergies, which used to trade as oil supermajor Total, also noted in its press release that Singapore's electric mobility growth outlook will be driven by the national Green Plan 2030 target of 60,000 charge points island wide over the next decade. Liang Ting Wee, who heads marketing and services for TotalEnergies in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East, said that the group plans to participate in the green plan, and also aims "to forge key partnerships and to accelerate developments in the region" with Singapore as a launchpad. 

Question 1:

(a) Collect and compare BlueSG electric car rental prices against that of two (2) internal combustion engine (ICE) car rental companies such as GetGo, Shariot, Car Club or WhizzCar. Assess the differences in price structure and price metrics. 

(b) Identify and examine two (2) operational constraints and advantages of BlueSG business model. 

Question 2:

(a) Describe BlueSG existing pricing metrics and discuss if these are consistent in unlocking the value of BlueSG business potential. 

(b) Propose new pricing metrics and price structure for BlueSG electric car rental business to increase revenue growth and profits. 

Question 3:

The current fleet size of BlueSG in Singapore is 667 cars. With your proposed new pricing structure, estimate the annual revenue of BlueSG based on your assumption of number of rentals and average distance travelled per rental. Illustrate the change in revenue with price sensitivity of 5% and 10% reduction in per km charge resulting in corresponding increase of 5% and 10% in number of monthly rentals.