Singapore's largest taxi company, ComfortDelGro on Friday said it entered into an agreement with U.S.-based ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies to manage its fleet of vehicles and booking software solutions in Singapore.
ComfortDelGro entered into a deal with Uber's unit Mieten B.V. to buy a 51 percent stake in its wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore, Lion City Holdings Pte. Ltd., which in turn owns Lion City Rental Pte Ltd. (LCR), the company said in a regulatory filing.
LCR is a private hire vehicle fleet owner in Singapore with about 14,000 vehicles.
The company had announced in August that it was in 'exclusive' talks with Uber to form alliance.
Through the partnership, ComfortDelGro will become a multi-dimensional personalised mobility operator providing a broader range of services to consumers, the company said.
It will also create a path for ComfortDelGro's taxi drivers to receive ride requests on the Uber driver app, thereby increasing their potential earnings while providing users of the Uber app an opportunity to directly book a ComfortDelGro taxi.
The deal, valued at about $642 million, with a cash consideration of $295 million, ranks as ComfortDelGro's single largest deal to-date.
ComfortDelGro will fund the deal by internal funds, it said.
ComfortDelGro is trying to lure internet savvy customers by offering cashless mobile payments.
In July, the company announced the launch of mobile payment option Alipay on its fleet of 15,000 taxis in Singapore.
Shares in ComfortDelGro closed down 1.5 percent at S$1.91 on the Singapore Exchange. Stocks has lost 22 percent in an year.
