ECA Submission Guidelines: Goldbell Acquires BlueSG and Plans $40m Investment by 2023

Instructions To Students

Instructions To Students:
1. This End-of-Course Assessment paper comprises NINE (9) pages (including the cover page).

2. You are to include the following particulars in your submission: Course Code, Title of the ECA, SUSS PI No., Your Name, and Submission Date.

3. Late submission will be subjected to the marks deduction scheme. Please refer to the Student Handbook for details.

ECA Submission Guidelines
Please follow the submission instructions stated below:

A - What Must Be Submitted
You are required to submit the following THREE (3) items for marking and grading:
• A Report (you should submit this item first as it carries the highest weightage).

• A Video Presentation:
o SUSS conducts Hands-on workshop on how to record ECA video presentation for SBIZ students every semester. Students will receive an invite to the workshop via Student Portal, Canvas as well as email, a month before the ECA cut-off date.

o The ECA video recording and submission guides are also available as an external links/downloads in the invite.

• The set of PowerPoint slides, converted to PDF, upon which the video presentation is based.
Please verify your submissions after you have submitted the above THREE (3) items.

B - Submission Deadline
• The THREE (3) items of Report, Video and Presentation Summary are to be submitted by 12 noon on the submission deadline.
• You are allowed multiple submissions till the cut-off date for each of the THREE (3) items.
• Late submission of any of the THREE (3) items will be subjected to mark-deduction scheme by the University. Please refer to Section 5.2 Para 2.4 of the Student Handbook.

C - How the (3) Items Should Be Submitted
• The Report: submit online to Canvas via TurnItIn (for plagiarism detection)
• The Video: submit online to Canvas (refer to workshop invite for the user guide)
• The Presentation Summary:
o submit online to Canvas via TurnItIn (PPT must be converted to PDF and submission is in PDF only)
o The PPT must contain at least 20 words
o Refer to workshop invite for the user guide

• Avoid using a public WiFi connection for submitting large video files. If you are using public wireless (WiFi) connection (e.g. SG Wireless at public areas), you might encounter a break in the connection when sending large files. 

D - Please be Aware of the Following:
Submission in hardcopy or any other means not given in the above guidelines will not be accepted. You do not need to submit any other forms or cover sheets (e.g. form ET3) with your ECA.

ECA Submission Guidelines

You are reminded that electronic transmission is not immediate. The network traffic may be particularly heavy on the date of submission  deadline and connections to the system cannot be guaranteed. Hence, you are advised to submit your work early. Canvas will allow you to submit your work late but your work will be subjected to the mark-deduction scheme. You should therefore not jeopardise your course result by submitting your ECA at the last minute.

It is your responsibility to check and ensure that your files are successfully submitted to Canvas.

Section A (Total 65 marks)
Goldbell acquires BlueSG; plans up to $40m investment by 2023

Vehicle leasing and distribution company Goldbell Group announced on Monday (Oct 18) its finalisation on the acquisition of electric car-sharing player BlueSG, after the announcement was made in February 2021.

The group, in a press statement, highlighted that out of the planned S$70 million investment capital for the next five years, 60 per cent or S$40 million will be made by 2023, as part of its growth acceleration strategy. A key priority of the investment will be the establishment of an open innovation platform in Singapore through BlueSG, which will act as a test bed for new and experimental pilot technologies.

Goldbell also noted that it is on track to expand the BlueSG fleet size with immediate effect, and that it will increase its staff strength by 20 per cent at the end of this year. To realise BlueSG's business and technical capabilities expansion potential will be among Goldbell's immediate priorities. It aims to achieve this by developing a business model that will be replicated among other smart cities in the Asia-Pacific.

The group said that this effort will be kicked off from the establishment of BlueSG's global headquarters for car sharing by the end of 2021, which also "sets the stage" for overseas expansion. With the finalisation of the acquisition, Jenny Lim, who was previously BlueSG's commercial and network director, has now been appointed by Goldbell as BlueSG's head of Singapore, responsible for overall operations.

Goldbell chief executive Arthur Chua commented that since the announcement of the acquisition eight months ago, the company has been laying the groundwork to bring BlueSG to its next level of growth. "Not only are we interested in deploying newer generation, experimental technologies in our car-sharing fleet, we are also looking forward to working with companies, as well as local institutes of higher learning and research institutes, to realise our vision to evolve the BlueSG fleet into a living lab for future mobility innovations," he noted. Goldbell also affirmed that BlueSG customers will continue to enjoy the same services as before, following the proposed acquisition and rebranding of the BlueSG island wide network of more than 1,500 electric vehicles charging points by a global multi-energy company, TotalEnergies.

"We look forward to working with a variety of charging infrastructure providers in Singapore and are excited about the interest that this is already generating among potential international original equipment manufacturers who are looking to tap into our BlueSG brand to showcase
their new electric vehicle models, as part of our fleet expansion quest," added Chua.

Question 1
(a) Collect and compare BlueSG electric car rental prices against that of two (2) internal combustion engine (ICE) car rental companies such as GetGo, Shariot, Car Club or WhizzCar. Assess the differences in price structure and price metrics.

(b) Identify and examine two (2) operational constraints and advantages of BlueSG business model.

Question 2
(a) Describe BlueSG existing pricing metrics and discuss if these are consistent in unlocking the value of BlueSG business potential. 

(b) Propose new pricing metrics and price structure for BlueSG electric car rental business to increase revenue growth and profits.

Question 3
The current fleet size of BlueSG in Singapore is 667 cars. With your proposed new pricing structure, estimate the annual revenue of BlueSG based on your assumption of number of rentals and average distance travelled per rental. Illustrate the change in revenue with price sensitivity of 5% and 10% reduction in per km charge resulting in corresponding increase of 5% and 10% in number of monthly rentals

Question 4
Read the two articles using the links below to answer this question.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/grab-uber-fined-a-combined-13-million-by-competit on-watchdog-for-march-merger Appraise the key issues that lead to this fine and recommend what Grab and Uber could have done differently to avoid the fine of $13m after the merger.

Section B (Total 25 marks)
Prepare a video recording of the presentation of at least 3 minutes but not exceeding 6 minutes. There are two methods for ECA video assignment submission; either Record Media or Upload Media. For Upload Media, please note that your file size should be no more than 500MB and the format is in .mp4.

Section C (Total 10 marks)
Prepare a set of PowerPoint presentation slides upon which the video presentation is based. Please note that the PowerPoint must be converted to PDF before submission to Canvas.