Cabcharge, Black Cabs Talks Flag Likely Merger
The Age
Tuesday April 29, 2003
Cabcharge Australia is in merger talks with Melbourne's second largest taxi dispatch service, Black Cabs Combined.
Black Cabs is one of Cabcharge's founding shareholders and still holds 3.83 million shares, or 2.6 per cent of the company.
Announcing the merger talks yesterday, Cabcharge chairman Reg Kermode said a merger with Black Cabs, if completed, would consolidate Cabcharge's move into taxi dispatch services.
Cabcharge already runs the eponymous national taxi fare charging service. Early last year, it moved into the taxi dispatch side of the business when it bought Sydney's largest taxi despatch company, CCN.
CCN serviced a total of 2300 taxis in Sydney across 900 fleets.
``The proposed merger with Black Cabs would augment the acquisition of Sydney's largest taxi company CCN in 2002," Mr Kermode said.
``(It) will, in time, allow us to apply new technologies and services across a wider user base of taxis."
As Black Cabs was an efficient organisation, there would be little impact on staff if a merger was agreed, he said.
Documents lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show that Black Cabs Combined reported a profit of $688,000 in the year to June 30, 2002.
The company made even more than that in the following half-year, reporting a profit of $698,798 for the six months to December 31.
The increased earnings stemmed from a strong rise in service revenue - from $4.01 million to $4.74 million - in the half year, the start of security camera hire services, which generated $378,000 in fees (nil) and increased dividends of $230,000 ($156,000).
Like Black Cabs, CCN was a shareholder in Cabcharge, holding 31.3 per cent of the company before it was acquired in January last year. CCN's vendors now hold 23.6 per cent of Cabcharge.
Black Cabs operates both Yellow Cabs and Black Cabs in Melbourne and has been scaling back its promotion of the Black Cabs brand. Around 98 per cent of its fleet now operates as Yellow Cabs.
© 2003 The Age