The following article has been adapted from Straits Times Interactive (Friday, 9th January 2004 edition).
THE idea was strength in unity. But in the end, it may have been a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Private bus operator Trans-United Corp, once thought to be a force in the transport industry, is in financial straits.
The company, an amalgamation of 12 smallish private bus operators that is barely four years old, is now under the judicial management of Ferrier Hodgson, an accountancy firm specialising in insolvencies and restructuring.
Judicial managers are appointed, usually by the High Court, to take charge of a company which cannot pay its debts.
Ferrier Hodgson took out space in The Straits Times yesterday to seek 'expressions of interest' from any party who might be keen to take over 'all or part' of the bus company. These should be lodged by 4pm next Monday.
When contacted, the accounting firm's partner Tim Reid said: 'We're not looking for investors, but someone to acquire the business, in whole or in part.
'My priority now, with Chinese New Year being so close, is to settle this so that the wages of the workers can be paid.'
The bus company has about 300 staff and 265 mainly large buses - its 'principal assets'.
He said his office had received 'a large number of inquiries from several parties'.
Asked about the size of the company's debt, Mr Reid said: 'It's inappropriate for us to disclose that.'
According to available Registry of Companies and Businesses data, the operator incurred a net loss of more than $500,000 in 2000.
As recently as a couple of years ago, the company had grand plans of listing and going regional.
Its chairman, Mr Harry Lim, said in a 2001 interview that the operator's expected annual turnover was $26 million and that it aimed to increase its fleet to 1,000 buses in five years, from 300 then.
So what happened?
No one at the company was available for comment yesterday. Mr Lim said via voice-SMS that he was busy in 'an important meeting with staff and am not ready to make any comment'.
Sources, however, said changing transport conditions here, as well as shareholder discord, may have been responsible for the sudden slide in business.
'It's a tragic story,' one said.
Shortly after the company's formation, the field heated up with taxi operator Comfort Group - now part of ComfortDelGro Corp - muscling into the private bus segment, aggressively vying for school-children and workers.
Retired industry veteran Ng Ser Miang, who started bus operator Tibs in 1980 after bringing seven smaller bus companies together, said: 'It's regrettable the efforts to bring 12 companies together didn't work.
'This goes to show public transport is not an easy business. The cost is high, but the margins aren't. You need to be very efficient and productive.'
He eventually bought out his other shareholders.
'It was a matter of making people see that if you come together, some will have to give up autonomy... It was an amicable parting.'
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