European private equity firm Cinven and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will acquire Hotelbeds Group for €1.165 billion.
Hotelbeds is the largest independent business-to-business (‘B2B’) bedbank globally, offering hotel rooms to the travel industry from its inventory of 75,000 hotels in over 180 countries to its customer base across more than 120 source markets.
In addition to hotel accommodation, the Company provides transfers, excursions and tours, meetings and events, visa processing outsourcing and cruise handling services. Hotelbeds’ main clients are tour operators, travel agencies, corporate clients and consumers.
The Bedbank business, which generates the majority of the Company’s profitability, has demonstrated double digit volume growth in both its hotel portfolio and room nights over the past five years. Headquartered in Palma de Mallorca, the Group was established in 2001 and employs 6,150 people worldwide.
Cinven has a strong track record in the travel technology business, following its successful investment in Amadeus, the leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel industry, which invested more than €1 billion in R&D and doubled EBITDA during Cinven’s ownership, generating a return of 7 times.
Commenting on this transaction, Jorge Quemada, Partner at Cinven, said: “Hotelbeds Group is a strongly performing business with the largest accommodation distribution network within the overall B2B bedbank market offering broad client reach globally. We believe there are considerable growth opportunities through further investment in IT – as we did successfully with another global business based in Spain, Amadeus; growth in Asia and other markets – supported by our Hong Kong-based portfolio team; and market consolidation as the wholesale accommodation market remains highly fragmented.
“Hotelbeds is run by a highly experienced and skilled management team, led by CEO, Joan Vilà, whom we are looking forward to working with, along with our partner, CPPIB.”
Joan Vilà, CEO of Hotelbeds Group, commented: “We are excited about Cinven and CPPIB’s investment in Hotelbeds which will enable us to continue improving the quality and range of services we provide to customers as a financially solid, independent and scalable bedbank operator.
“The Bedbank segment continues to grow fast and with the backing of Cinven and CPPIB we will be well placed to invest more strongly than ever in technology, innovation and distribution. We look forward with anticipation to supporting the growth of our trade partners in this next stage of our development.”
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