Editing New World First Bus (section)

=== Start of operations ===
NWFB took over 88 bus routes on 1 September 1998, with the fleet mostly were 710 step-entrance buses. In order to compete with Citybus and KMB, NWFB has purchased 500 new low-floor buses, out of which 76 are Dennis Dart SLF and the remaining are all low-floor, and 50 buses commenced operations immediately. Step-entrance buses had the NWFB logo applied over the CMB logos and blue patches over the CMB corporate flag, before repainting it to NWFB livery, and upgraded the floor, handrails, lighting system and seating layout. The seating layout was changed from 3+2 to 2+2, making a typical refurbished bus accommodate 10 fewer passengers than one before refurbishment.<ref name="LegCouncil31Jul98" />

As for the older buses from CMB, they were all gradually phased out by January 2016, becoming full low-floor fleet except for two Dennis Condors (DM18 and DM22) and two Volvo Olympians (VA51 and VA54) which were transferred to Citybus before retirement. After the phasing out of all older buses from CMB, NWFB also began retirement of the first-generation low-floor fleet, and 1220 was even transferred to Citybus before retirement in 13 December 2020.

In May 2000 [[FirstGroup]] sold its shares to joint venture partner [[New World Development]] giving it 100% ownership.<ref name="NWSMilestones">[http://www.nws.com.hk/html/eng/about/milestones.aspx?hidden_params01=MHgMw6YMDDDVurs5kj5QvIObTrowNI6xoxUYvHvUQqs9Y9UFju3udQ6Gk6awBU2TKx7U8JF2asqvh9V6idzADg%3D%3D&hidden_params02=MHgMw6YMDDDVurs5kj5QvAdscwlD4S5Aei4keMyMuBTG6%2F6gJz9mt1%2FE51PrS8Ud&params01=MHgMw6YMDDDVurs5kj5QvIObTrowNI6xoxUYvHvUQqs9Y9UFju3udQ6Gk6awBU2TKx7U8JF2asqvh9V6idzADg%3D%3D&params02=MHgMw6YMDDDVurs5kj5QvAdscwlD4S5Aei4keMyMuBTG6%2F6gJz9mt1%2FE51PrS8Ud Milestones 2000] [[NWS Holdings]]</ref>

In June 2003 fellow franchised bus operator [[Citybus (Hong Kong)|Citybus]] was purchased by NWFB parent company [[NWS Holdings]], bringing the bus services of Hong Kong Island once again under control of a single organisation. Before the acquisition, many of the two companies' competing routes overlap each other. In order to make better use of company resources, many routes were reshuffled. Redundant routes were cancelled, and [[Octopus card]] bus-bus interchange discounts were introduced between routes of both companies.<ref name=NWSMilestones/>

In January 2004 NWFB took a 51% shareholding in Kunming New World First Bus, a [[joint venture]] established with the Kunming government to operate services to [[Kunming]] in [[Yunnan]] on 39 routes with 700 buses.<ref name=NWSMilestones/>