Kinetic Group

Kinetic Group (stylised as KINETIC; formerly known as AATS Group) is an Australian-based multinational bus company that wholly owns a number of bus operations in Australia and New Zealand, including the SkyBus business, which operates bus services to a number of airports in both countries. Through its 51%-owned subsidiary Go-Ahead Group based in the United Kingdom, Kinetic also operates buses and railway services in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Germany, Ireland and Norway, and the U-Go Mobility joint venture in Sydney. Kinetic is majority owned by Canadian pension fund OPTrust and British infrastructure manager Foresight Group (who acquired Kinetic's previous co-owner Infrastructure Capital Group in 2022). AATS started in 2014 as a consortium that included Catalyst Direct Capital Management and OPTrust Private Markets Group to purchase SkyBus. Michael Sewards and Adam Begg were the founders and became the co-CEOs of the company. AATS purchased Transit Australia Group (TAG) in April 2019, including bus companies Sunbus and Surfside Buslines. It was rebranded the Kinetic Group in August 2019, and remains the parent company of SkyBus and TAG. In the same month, OPTrust began to seek a co-investor in Kinetic Group, who would hold a minority share in the group. Kinetic acquired Sydney bus and coach charter company Telfords Bus & Coach in November 2019, followed by Cairns bus operator Love's Bus Service Queensland in January 2020. In March 2020, it was announced that Kinetic would buy GoBus with 1,700 buses, subject to approval by the New Zealand Overseas Investment Office.