European private equity firm Cinven and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) announced an agreement to acquire Hotelbeds Group. Cinven and CPPIB to partner with the management team to strongly position the business for fast growth together with its industry partners.
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 based 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.
The main clients of Hotelbeds’ are tour operators, travel agencies, corporate clients and consumers. Headquartered in Palma de Mallorca, the Group was established in 2001 and employs 6,150 people worldwide. Cinven and CPPIB believe Hotelbeds is an attractive investment opportunity on the basis of:
• Strong financial performance with double digit total transaction value (“TTV”) growth in the Bedbank business over the last five years.
• Strong underlying market growth supported by an expected increase in global hotel bookings.
• Hotelbeds’ highly experienced, proven management team, led by Joan Vilà, CEO, with an outstanding track record of driving organic growth in both its hotel supply and customer base.
• Market consolidation opportunities in Europe, Middle East, Asia and the Americas given market fragmentation and potential for further margin improvement through economies of scale.
• Opportunity to improve bedbank distribution via travel agents and tour operators - particularly in emerging economies - via investment in its sales and contracting team, as well as investment in R&D and IT systems to improve customer efficiencies and services.