Dubag buys Gesellschaft für Reisevertriebssysteme

HWW Hermann Wienberg Wilhelm acted as insolvency administrator for Thomas Cook. The sale of the company has been approved by the Thomas Cook creditors' committee.

The search for a buyer for GfR began in October, following the announcement of its parent company's insolvency. A source close to the situation told Unquote that Dubag was the successful bidder in a process that generated interest from family offices, strategic investors and private equity firms, drawing more than 10 indicated offers, as well as binding offers.

GfR's management team will remain in place and Dubag group manager Philip Borbély will take a seat on the company's board as chief revenues officer. Dubag will hold 100% of the shares but the firm plans to incentivise management in the future through virtual stakes, Unquote understands.

The GP plans to broaden the company's client base and will explore potential new sectors beyond tourism for its call centre services, including media and transport.

Dubag invested from the fund Leo II, which is currently 15% deployed and held its final close in September 2019 on €40m. The vehicle invests equity cheques of up to €8m in companies with turnovers of €20-400m. The vehicle aims to make 8-10 investments during its lifespan. Unquote understands that no debt was used for the acquisition of GfR.

GfR was a subsidiary of Thomas Cook Touristik prior to the sale to Dubag. It was bought by Lufthansa in 1998 and sold to Thomas Cook in 2003, after it began using the company's services in 1999.

Company
GfR provides tourism-focused call centres in German and English for travel agencies and websites, tour operators, airlines and hotels. Its client base includes Lufthansa Holidays, Condor and Check24. Founded in 1997, it employs 500 staff and is based in Bochum and Berlin. The business generated sales of €27m in 2018 and reported a turnover of €24.6m in 2016.

People
Gesellschaft für Reisevertriebssysteme – Philip Borbély (chief revenues officer).
HWW Hermann Wienberg Wilhelm – Ottmar Hermann, Fabio Algari (insolvency administrators).

Advisers
Equity – Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, Andreas Lenz (legal); Götz & Partner (corporate finance); Dr Dautel + Kollegen (tax).
Vendor – Noerr, Dorothee Prosteder, Florian Becker (legal).
Company – PwC, Timo Klees (corporate finance).

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