The bus - These buses were initially ordered by Citybus, as a part of their proposed fleet expansion programme in the late 1990s. However, around September 1999, Hong Kong's Transport Department imposed a fleet quota on all franchised bus operators in Hong Kong, which seriously affected Citybus's fleet expansion proposal. Therefore, Citybus was forced to cancel the order for these new double deckers (together with at least two Volgren bodied MAN 24.310 double deckers), when in fact Berkhof has already built 32 of them! Meanwhile, Citybus has also gave up two 'optional orders' for 20 Duple Metsec bodied Dennis Tridents and 20 Volvo B6LEs at the same time.

As a result, MAN's dealer in Hong Kong had to find a new buyer for these newly built buses. After a number of negotiations, KMB decided to buy 30 of them. Of the two remaining buses, one went to Kwoon Chung Motors, (registered as JN4886 in 2000, but was not put into service until September 2001!) whilst the other was kept by Berkhof as a demonstrator.

Interestingly, some of these buses still had CTB's livery and interior specifications when they were bought by KMB. KMB therefore had to make a number of modifications (including the addition of headrests on almost all of the seats, a replacement of the seat cover, and of course a repaint!) before they were put into service from 25th April 2000 onwards.