Egypt: Swvl aims to back out from Turkish startup Volt acquisition

Egypt: Swvl aims to back out from Turkish startup Volt acquisition

Egypt - Swvl, a Cairo-based mass transit company headquartered in Dubai, tries to back out from the $40m deal it signed last year to acquire Turkish B2B mobility startup Volt Lines.

Swvl suffered from low liquidity and high financial losses during the recent period.

In April 2022, Swvl announced the acquisition of Volt Lines for $40m and promised to invest an additional $25m.

The Nasdaq-listed bus operator filed a notice with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week notifying it that it seeks to block the acquisition.

Swvl stated that it had “entered into a definitive agreement with some of the former shareholders of Volt Lines, a private limited liability company, providing transportation services to the business sector and individuals based in Turkey, to cancel its previous acquisition of Volt Lines.”

Volt Lines, founded in 2018 by Ali Al-Halabi, offers transportation services as an alternative to public transport to individual and corporate clients in Turkey.

Volt Lines shared buses were used by more than 110 companies in the region at the time of the acquisition.

The company’s acquisition at the time followed a wave of buyouts by Swvl that led to the purchase of ViaPool, a Latin American mass transit company with operations in Argentina