The story
On 1 April 1989, London Buses was divided into 11 separate business units, one of which was East London. In 1994, East London was sold to Stagecoach Holdings at the same time as fellow subsidiary Selkent for £42 million (equivalent to £88,619,000 in 2025), with operations subsequently rebranded to Stagecoach East London. In November 2000, in line with the rebranding of the wider Stagecoach Group, Stagecoach East London and Selkent were consolidated under the Stagecoach London brand.
In August 2006, Stagecoach sold its London bus operations to Macquarie Bank for £264 million (equivalent to £456,239,000 in 2025). The new owner restored the East London name and Thames sailing barge logo, forming the East London Bus Group (ELBG). When the ELBG acquired the tender to operate route 248 in March 2008, a new operating subsidiary named 'Thameside' was formed out of the reopened Rainham bus garage, with buses featuring a logo depicting a white outline of the River Thames.
In October 2010, Stagecoach reacquired its old London operations for a reduced sum of £53 million (equivalent to £81,871,000 in 2025), with East London once again rebranded as Stagecoach London. In August 2022, East London purchased buses from HCT Group that the social enterprise carried out on behalf of Transport for London. The deal saw around 500 members of staff and 160 buses transfer, along with leases on depots at Ash Grove and Walthamstow.
From Wikipedia’s article on East London (bus company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3