Gocollective Bus A/S

Beskrivelse af virksomhedens væsentligste aktiviteter

Business review
The GoCollective A/S Group is the largest private bus and heavy rail operator in Denmark, offering Bus, Rail and electric waterbus services as well as providing transport related vocational training and Danish language tuition through the UCplus business. Until February 2024, GoCollective also operated the free float car sharing service, SHARE NOW.
As of 31 December 2024 the Group’s activities were organized as can be seen; refer to Group Chart 31 December 2024 (Page 7).

Beskrivelse af usikkerhed ved indregning eller måling

Recognition and measurement uncertainties
The recognition and measurement of items in the annual report is not associated with any uncertainty.

Beskrivelse af usædvanlige forhold, der kan have påvirket indregningen eller målingen

Unusual matters
Non-recurring costs: The fiscal year 2024 was unique, with GoCollective executing successfully on an extensive transformation and commercial relaunch agenda. As part of this effort, the Group recognized a total of DKKm 84 in nonrecurring costs – primarily related to:
- IT platform replacement and development costs - Advisory costs related to transformation - Financing & related fees - redundancies from restructuring - Termination of SHARE NOW operations (note 10 discontinuing operations) - Rebranding
Re-organization: In connection with GoCollective’s issue of a 300 DKKm senior secured Bond in April 2024, existing Bus assets held by GoCollective A/S, were transferred to a new subsidiary entity (BusDan 32.2 ApS) and pledged to bondholders as security.
Rolling stock assets held by GoCollective Rail, were similarly transferred to a new subsidiary entity (RailDan ApS) and pledged to bondholders as security.

Beskrivelse af udviklingen i virksomhedens aktiviteter og økonomiske forhold

Operating and financial review
2024 marked a pivotal year for GoCollective A/S, as the company solidified its transition to a new strategic trajectory following three years of stagnation and non-investment under its previous shareholder. This period of inactivity, from 2020 to 2023, saw severe capital constraints that prevented GoCollective from defending critical contracts or pursuing new opportunities through tendering. This resulting in a 50% reduction in contracted revenue as the company lost critical Bus contracts and saw Rail performance impacted by delayed inflation adjustments and infrastructure challenges.
The divestment from Deutsche Bahn AG to Mutares SE & Co. KGaA, finalized in May 2023, was a turning point, setting the stage for revitalization. With the successful closing of the transaction, GoCollective embarked on an ambitious strategy (‘Go 2026’) to reposition the business as an autonomous and agile operator in the Danish public transportation sector.
Freed from the constraints of the past, GoCollective has successfully reignited its competitive edge, as demonstrated by its strong tendering performance and operational turnaround. The strategic vision outlined in the ‘Go 2026’ plan reflects a company not only recovering but redefining its role in the Danish public transportation landscape.
The outcome of this transformation is evident in 2024:
Transformation milestones: GoCollective successfully completed major transformation initiatives, including rebranding, termination of SHARE NOW operations, local collective agreement renegotiation and operational optimization, decentralization of operations to drive Business Unit autonomy and ownership, and replacing critical IT systems such as the ERP and HR systems.
Operational turn-around: Despite revenue contraction of 11% compared to FY2023 due to the long-term negative impacts of the capital constraints experienced under the previous ownership, the company almost achieved operating EBITDA breakeven for continuing operations, reflecting disciplined cost management and successful execution of key initiatives to reduce variable costs.
Tendering success: After years of forced inaction, GoCollective re-entered the tendering market with remarkable success, securing strong wins in 4 consecutive tenders in the Bus business (MT66, Svendborg, A23 and A23X), securing contracts for 186 electric buses across Denmark, with operational start during 2025 and 2026. GoCollective thus significantly strengthened its future market position in electric fleet operations. GoCollective also managed to extend a number of existing Bus tenders (Holstebro and Northern Funen) as well as expanding its Danish language training portfolio through a large tender win in UCplus consisting of a portfolio of 7 municipality contracts. As a manifestation of its impressive growth path, UCplus was awarded Børsen Gazelle Award in November 2024, given to companies with continuous profitable growth over four years.
Secured financing for transformation: In April 2024, GoCollective successfully raised 300 mDKK through a senior secured bond issuance. This financing enabled the company to execute its transformation strategy, fund critical investments in new IT and operational infrastructure, and provide working capital stability.
Mitigation of Rail supply chain disruptions: In 2024, the geopolitical situation continued to negatively impact Rail operations, customer satisfaction and passenger volumes, due to significant competition from the European defence industry for workforce and key components. Consequently, GoCollective’s core suppliers have been struggling to deliver critical spare parts and workforce capacity to conduct heavy overhaul of trainsets, resulting in more grounded trainsets than expected and therefore a higher level of service cancellations. GoCollective’s ability to deliver its transport services effectively has also been negatively impacted by external disruptions to the Company’s access to the track infrastructure itself. Significant delays in the infrastructure provider’s signalling system overhaul as well as poor track maintenance and extreme weather resulted in a far higher than expected level of track blockages. Mitigation strategies have included the onboarding of new suppliers for trainset heavy overhaul and working closely with existing vendors to increase heavy overhaul capacity. A robust political focus on ensuring better conditions for track infrastructure access going forward has also been initiated.

Omtale af betydningsfulde hændelser, som er indtruffet efter regnskabsårets afslutning

Strategic development
Building on the momentum from 2023, GoCollective advanced its strategic objectives in 2024:
Brand repositioning: The new GoCollective name and brand identity was successfully launched in April 2024 towards employees, stakeholders, and customers, reinforcing the company's commitment to sustainability and public service and symbolizing a revitalized and autonomous operator in the Danish public transportation sector.
Growth initiatives: Investments in electric bus fleet expansion have positioned the company to capitalize on emerging opportunities in sustainable mobility, whereas extensions in vocational training programs in UCplus have also contributed to a stabile growth path.
Sustainability governance and compliance: GoCollective made significant strides in ESG reporting, aligning with the EU CSRD and Taxonomy requirements and advancing its green transition agenda. Furthermore, continuous execution of cybersecurity compliance – known as the NIS2 Directive – added to the robustness of the company.
Automation and digitalization: Continued investment in digital systems has streamlined manual processes and enhanced operational efficiency, with a lot of potential still remaining.

Beskrivelse af virksomhedens forventede udvikling

Challenges and risk mitigation
While the company has made significant progress, key challenges remain:
Rail maintenance: Operational inefficiencies arising from disruptions to infrastructure access and maintenance delays will potentially continue to impact customer satisfaction and passenger volumes negatively. GoCollective will therefore continue its dedicated efforts to ensure robustness in its supply chain for heavy overhaul and that concrete dialogues with the infrastructural provider leads to tangible measures for mitigating disruptions to track infrastructure access.
Liquidity and financing: Higher liquidity requirements due to the greater than anticipated commercial success in securing new contracts have also increased the financing requirement of the business. Finalizing competitive long-term financingto support the company’s growth trajectory is therefore also a key topic for 2025. Having already secured medium-term financing through a successful bond emission of c. DKKm 300 and long-term bank financing for the first tranche of newly won Bus contracts, there is confidence that competitive future financing will also be achieved.
Competitive tendering: While tendering efforts have been highly successful to date, GoCollective is operating in a competitive environment, so strategic pricing and operational excellence are therefore critical to maintaining market position.
Contract mobilization: GoCollective will be mobilizing 4 new contract starts in the Bus Business as well as new language centres in several municipalities by UCplus. A very positive consequence of successful bidding activity in 2024, new contract mobilizations are expected to be a significant capacity draw in 2025, and full focus is dedicated to. Having already successfully mobilized the first new Bus contract in December 2024, the business is well prepared for the task. With several contract mobilizations during 2025 by UCplus, this business is also expected to deliver effectively.
Economics and geopolitics: In general, the company will continue to be exposed to the uncertainty of the geopolitical and macroeconomic situation, with an elevated risk of energy price volatility, supply chain disruptions, and changed consumer behaviour.