Mwasalat Misr, bus service operator, starts negotiations to acquire transport company High Jet, said CEO and Managing Director of Mwasalat Misr Hisham Taha, without disclosing the value of the acquisition.
On the sidelines of signing an agreement with Orange, Taha said the company has completed the due diligence and presented it to its board of directors to obtain final approval of the deal.
He said if the deal was implemented, Mwasalat Misr will use High Jet to expand its operations to include cross-governorate transport.
High Jet has over 60 buses operating on a regular schedule and serving more than 14 cities.
Taha pointed out that the company currently has 300 buses, and that the company plans to cover Cairo by 2021 with a fleet of up to 500 buses, in addition to expansion and building a smart transportation network in tourist cities and linking them to each other in cooperation with the Arab Organization for Industrialization.
He pointed out that Cairo is a big city with more than 25m trips daily, and that the company is currently negotiating with the Ministry of Transport to provide special routes for its buses.
Taha revealed that the company will achieve the break-even point between revenues and expenditures by the end of the current year, and would turn to profitability next year.
He explained that his company agreed with Orange Company to provide free internet services inside its buses, and to provide an automatic tracking service for the company’s fleet and transfer of instant data to bus arrival times in addition to providing payment of tickets and subscriptions through Orange Cash service.
Mwasalat Misr transports about 2 million citizens every month, while the company aims to increase the number of passengers to 6 million per month, by the end of the year.
Taha said that the company relies on a strategic partnership with Orange to develop, publish and digitize its services during the coming period.
CEO and Managing Director of Orange Egypt Yasser Shaker said that having convenient transportation at an affordable price will facilitate transportation, especially in long distances. He added that through Orange technology solutions, tickets will be available through Orange branches in the coming period.
Depending on Orange’s solutions, he added, the customer can know the location of the bus, the expected time of arrival of the bus and the expected time of arrival at its destination.
