Citybus and NWFB take bus exterior advertising agency in house with Bravo Media

Bravo Transport Services, parent company of Hong Kong's bus companies Citybus and NWFB, has appointed Bravo Media, a subsidiary of the same company, as the agency for its exterior and interior bus advertising concessions, effective from 1 November. 

Citybus and NWFB have reached an agreement to terminate the existing contract with Bus Power under pre-agreed terms on 1 November 2021. Bravo Media will serve the remaining contractual period to "ensure smooth transition, financial guarantees and mitigate any business impact. Bravo Media will be the sole agency of the bus body exterior and interior advertising of Citybus and NWFB until 30 June 2023. Both bus companies operate more than 1,700 buses across more than 300 routes in Hong Kong. 

"Today marks a further chapter in the development of Bravo Transport Holdings as it expands into a dynamic new area of business. For our business partners and customers, we want to provide a seamless transition and will be working with the team at Bus Power to ensure this over the coming weeks. The new venture enables us to offer existing and new customers a unique 'one-stop' solution to agencies and clients and re-invigorate the transport media advertising marketplace across Hong Kong," said Cliff Zhang, chairman of Bravo Transport Holdings. 

Meanwhile, Bison Finance Group, parent company of Bus Power, announced the termination of the contract with Citybus and NWFB on 26 October too. Bus Power will pay a termination fee of HK$50,715,775 to the bus companies, according to a statement made by Bison Finance Group. 

Bison Finance Group said as disclosed in its 2021 interim report, the revenue from the media business amounted to about HK$64.9 million for the first half of 2021, which represented a decrease of approximately 48.0% from approximately HK$124.9 million for the same period in 2020. In addition, the media business recorded an adjusted loss before finance costs, income tax, depreciation and amortisation (LBITDA) of about HK$18.4 million for the first half of 2021, which represented a decrease of approximately 68.3% from an adjusted LBITDA of about HK$58.0 million for the first half of 2020.

The company added that the pandemic had impacted Hong Kong's economy severely. Various travel restrictions and quarantine measures had stopped plenty of economic activities. Subsequently, the sales performance of customers from the media business were severely hit. Amid the sluggish market and high unemployment rate, the customers from the media business reduced their ad expenses having regard to the short-term economic outlook.

Businesses shifting its resources from traditional offline to online platforms was another reason for the further reduction in the revenue of the media business. The company said due to continuous loss in the media segment since 2020, it has decided to terminate the contract with two bus companies. 

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