Publicly-listed firm A. Brown Company Inc. (ABCI) has cemented a partnership with Filipino-led Global Electric Transport (GET) Philippines Inc. for the targeted deployment of electric shuttle services in Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), A Brown indicated that its board of directors had already granted the go-signal for the joint venture (JV) deal which aims to “create, promote, operate and manage the ABC electric shuttle service.”
The listed company further noted that GET Philippines will incorporate and set up a new JV firm “to be jointly owned with ABCI for the purpose of initially owning 10 community optimized managed electric transport (COMET) electric vehicles that will be deployed for the project.”
While the equity split in the partnership has been fleshed out, A Brown has not revealed at this point the scale of investment that their JV firm with GET Philippines will be coughing up for the development of the EV shuttles.
Beyond the initial 10 COMET units, the company has not given details also on the targeted business buildup or expansion – given that the rollout of electric vehicles (EVs) is one of the clean technology development agenda being pushed by the current administration.
It has been specified that upon the JV entity’s incorporation, the outstanding capital stock will be P45,000,000 worth – and that shall correspond to 45,000,000 shares; adding that “GET will own 100-percent of the outstanding capital stock of (the) JV company.”
To concretize the 50:50 equity arrangement for the parties, GET will then transfer ownership of half or 22,500,000 of its shares into the joint venture company to A. Brown; and that shall serve as “advance payment for the shares of GET in JV company that ABCI will acquire from GET.”
As agreed, the JV corporate vehicle “will be responsible for the provision, management, service, maintenance, and operation of the fleet of COMET electric vehicles for the ABC electric shuttle service in Cagayan de Oro.”
A. Brown emphasized that the JV firm will be offering the COMET electric vehicles as “an effective marketing tool and platform for media and transit advertising for third parties.”
The company added the fleets “shall make use of the GETPASS Transport Ecosystem as a fleet and passenger management and monitoring system for the ABC electric shuttle service.”