Ebusco appoints Frank Meurs as co-CEO and shifts expected 2023’s revenue to 2024

Ebusco‘s 3.0 buses assembled by partners are in transit towards Europe. In the meanwhile, following the shift in assembly strategy, Ebusco states in a press note that “founder and CEO Peter Bijvelds has requested the Supervisory Board to consider creating the role of co-CEO with the aim to increase efficiency and sharing the workload in the company”.

The Supervisory Board today appoints Frank Meurs for this new co-CEO role on an ad interim basis while searching for a permanent solution.

Ebusco says that its 3.0 buses assembled by “partners” are currently in transit to Europe and are due to arrive in February.

Ebusco now has a co-CEO

Following the creation of the co-CEO role, “Peter Bijvelds will be able to fully focus on corporate strategy as well as product and commercial development. The complementary skill sets of Peter and Frank should further solidify the strong position Ebusco has built over the last decade in the zero-emission public transport market”, the company states. 

Beginning this year, Ebusco has started implementing the cost measures, developed late last year, to reduce the indirect cost base and align the direct cost base with the adjusted assembly strategy. These measures are expected to result in total operational expenditures for 2024 being substantially below 2023.

2023 revenue impacted also by bus production logistic

The company expects the 2023 revenue to be impacted by two elements. One of those is the Bus production logistic impact: “For a number of buses that were already completed at our assembly partners, revenue could not be recognised due to the fact that title transfer to Ebusco did not occur in time. These buses have been completed by our assembly partner and are ready for shipment. Furthermore, the recent disturbance in global logistics flows and the capacity in our own warehouses resulted in longer shipping times delaying the arrival of parts at our assembly partners. This had a knock-on effect on the assembly progress in the last weeks of the year at our partners. The title transfer and logistics issues had an impact on the 2023 revenue of circa EUR 15 to 20 million”.

The second concerns “Energy Containers certification delay”: “the delivery of most of the Energy Containers has been moved to 2024 as a certification programme required for delivery was not completed in line with the expected timetable. The certification programme has since been completed on the first containers and delivery to the client is now expected late Q1/early Q2. The impact of the delayed delivery is slightly over EUR 10 million”.

Ebusco claims that “The above circumstances will not impact the production plan for 2024 and therefore will not have consequences for client delivery plans and related cash collections”.

Ebusco expects EUR 325 million revenue in 2024

Part of Ebusco expected 2023 revenue will shift to early 2024, Ebusco says. “The revenue not recognised in 2023 will be added to our 2024 outlook which is subsequently increased to revenue in excess of EUR 325 million and positive EBITDA”, the company adds.

As a result, the guidance for 2024 is adjusted upwards from “revenue in excess of EUR 300 million” to “revenue in excess of EUR 325 million”. Furthermore, Ebusco reiterates that it expects positive EBITDA for the full year 2024. Ebusco will provide more concrete guidance on the EBITDA outlook throughout 2024.