Waterland exits Windrose Finest Travel

Carmen Reichman
12 December 2012

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Waterland Private Equity Investments has sold German luxury travel company Windrose Finest Travel (formerly Windrose Fernreisen Touristik) to German trade buyer RV Touristik.

The company was valued in the €3-10m range at the time of exit. Waterland told unquote" that it decided to exit after four and a half years because it could not progress further with its typical buy-and-build strategy due to a lack of suitable target companies.

The GP approached the buyer directly in what was a preemptive exclusive selling process. The founder of the business, Hans-Peter Holzinger, also sold his remaining 10% stake as part of the transaction.

Previous investment
Waterland bought a majority stake in Windrose from private owner Holzinger in April 2008. The company had a turnover of around €30m at the time and employed 32 people. Waterland restructured the family-run business during its tenure and readied it for corporate ownership.

The GP brought in Wybcke Meier as the new manager of the business in 2010 as part of a succession solution. Under her leadership Windrose focused on its core products, modernised both the brand and back-of-house operations, and worked on its internet presence.

As a result of the refocus, the business's overall turnover remained roughly the same over the holding period, at around €30m, however its core business grew by more than 5%. The company's EBITDA also saw a slight increase, the GP said, and staff numbers grew to 45 employees.

Company
Windrose Finest Travel is a German luxury travel company that was founded by Hans-Peter Holzinger in Berlin in 1973. The business offers organised trips for small groups and individuals, including travel, accommodation and tour guides.

People
Jan Hardorp, Christoph Dubies and Jörg Dreisow worked on the deal for Waterland.

Adviser
Vendor – Gleiss Lutz, Steffen Carl, Philip Bacher (Legal); Deloitte, Karsten Hollasch, Thomas Welz (Financial due diligence).
Acquirer – CMS Hasche Siegle, Eva-Annett Grigoleit, Igor Stenzel (Legal); PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomas Fischer, Veronika Sterzik (Financial due diligence).