Bus company Birmingham Motor Traction has been taken over in a deal announced to the stock market yesterday.
The Sutton Coldfield-based operator has become the latest acquisition in the city by transport firm Rotala, an Aim-listed operator based in London.
Rotala said yesterday it had paid #34,000 for BMT, which has a fleet of nine vehicles and turnover of #600,000 a year.
It has financed the deal by issuing #400,000-worth of convertible loan notes and warrants that will also cover the cost of acquiring 11 new vehicles as well as contributing to working capital.
Rotala bought out Zak's Bus and Coach Services for #30,000 cash in October following its #4.65 million takeover of Flights Group in August 2005.
It said yesterday that BMT's operations, which include contracts for Centro, Birmingham City Council and Staffordshire County Council would be merged with those run from the former Flights base in Long Acre.
"This step will eliminate duplicated administration and maintenance overheads and realise immediate cost savings," the stock market statement said.
"Thus the acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing from the outset."
Rotala did not say in the statement whether any BMT employees would become redundant and no-one could be contacted for comment.
Latest available figures show that Rotala made a pretax loss of #1.119 million on turnover of #8.027 million in the six months to May 31.
Non-executive chairman John Gunn said in yesterday's statement that the BMT acquisition would add to Rotala's presence in the West Midlands.
"We believe that government policy on transport will involve the expansion of urban bus services. This has been highlighted in several recent reports."
