Tide (transportation company)

Infobox Company
company_name = Tide ASA
company_
company_type = Public
foundation = 2006
location = Bergen, Norway
key_people =
area_served = Norway
industry = Transport
products =
services = Bus transport
Car ferry transport
Fast passenger craft
revenue = profit NOK 2 billion (2005)
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees = 3,000 (2007)
parent =
subsid =
homepage = [http://www.tide.no www.tide.no]
footnotes =

Tide ASA (ose|TIDE) is a public transport company in Hordaland, Norway which resulted from the merger of Gaia Trafikk and Hardanger Sunnhordlandske Dampskipsselskap (HSD). The company provides the public transit network in Bergen, and most of the rural bus service in Hordaland. The company also operates the passenger- and car ferry routes previously operated by HSD and Stavangerske.

The group has three daughter companies, Tide Buss AS that operates the scheduled busses, Tide Sjø AS that operates ferries and fast passenger craft throughout western Norway and the leiseure travel company Tide Reiser AS that also operates express, airport and charter buses and chartered ferries and fast passenger craft. The largest owners are Det Stavangerske Dampskibsselskap (75%) and Sparebanken Vest (10%). The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange with head offices in Bergen.

Assets

At the time of the merger, Tide had a total of
*1040 buses
*30 car ferries
*10 boatsThe company has about 3000 employees. The total value of the company was estimated at NOK 800 million. The company has 39 million passengers per year, of which 25 million are in Bergen. [cite web |url=http://www.bt.no/na24/article282655.ece |title=Transportfusjonen vedtatt |date=2006-06-17 |author=Bergens Tidende |language=Norwegian] The company operates the only trolleybus service in Scandinavia, Line 2 in Bergen, with eight trolleybuses. Another trolleybus service in Scandinavia runs in Landskrona, Sweden.

The merger process

Plans for mergers and takeovers in Hordaland's public transport business came forth in September 2005 when Connex reported interest in purchasing Gaia. On November 8 Gaia and HSD suggested a merger between the two companies instead, but the city cabinet leader of Bergen, Monica Mæland and the mayor of Os opposed the idea. The employess of both companies openly supported the idea in June 2006. Two other companies, Arriva and Nettbuss, a subsidiary the Norwegian State Railways also showed interest in a takeover.

As majority shareholder in Gaia, the city council in Bergen decided to vote in favour of the HSD-Gaia merger on June 19, 2006. The name "Tide" was presented on June 27. Just a day before the Extraordinary General Meetings in both companies, Arriva submitted an indicative bid of NOK 380-400 million and the representative of Bergen's cabinet, Henning Warloe, voted "against" the merger at Gaia's general meeting on June 29. As this was against the city council's resolution a motion of no confidence was proposed. This motion failed on November 20 2006 [cite web |url=http://www.bt.no/lokalt/bergen/article317010.ece |title=Mistillit mot byrådet nedstemt |author=Bergens Tidende |date=2006-11-20 |language=Norwegian] A new general meeting was called for Gaia and on July 17, the merger was approved in that company as well. The Norwegian Competition Authority approved the merger on October 25 [cite web |url=http://www.bt.no/na24/article309280.ece |title=En lang reise er slutt |date=2006-10-25 |author=Bergens Tidende |language=Norwegian] .

Initially, the buses in the new company retained their old colors, yellow for Gaia, red and white for HSD, with only the logo being changed. New buses will have a white livery. [cite web |url=http://www.bt.no/trafikk/article309685.ece |title=Her er Tide-bussen |author=Bergens Tidende |date=2006-10-26 |language=Norwegian]

The value of both the new brand name "Tide", as well as the new logo have been subject to some debate. "Gaia" and "HSD" were both well-established trademarks, and two experts on trademarks stated that the replacement name and logo were too anonymous. Tide itself have argued that the name is positive ("i tide" means "on time" in Norwegian), and that the logo represents both the land and sea based transportation. [ [http://www.bt.no/lokalt/article279199.ece Eksperter slakter Tide] Bergens Tidende June 27, 2006] Another criticism of the logo is that it resembles the word "shit" when viewed in a mirror. [ [http://www.ba.no/nyheter/article2422666.ece Shit, er ikke bussen i Tide?] Bergensavisen November 20, 2006]

On May 2, 2007 the boards of Tide and Det Stavangerske Dampskibsselskap (DSD) approved Tide's acquisition of Stavangerske AS, the ferry operating subsidiary of DSD. Jun 26, 2007 the Annual General Meeting of Tide approved the acquisition. At the same time there was an equity issue in the company aimed at new owners which successfully raised approx. MNOK 300. Effective from Jan 1, 2008 Stavangerske AS was merged with Tide Sjø AS. The new company will retain the Tide brand. Prior to this Stavangerske and HSD had won several tenders throughout Norway through their 50/50 joint venture Norferger.

References

External links

* [http://www.tide.no/ Official webpage]