Equistone Partners buys back Groupe Karavel in SBO

Equistone will invest alongside Alain de Mendonça and Folco Aloisi, founders of the Karavel-Promovacances Group; Cyrille Fradin, the group's financial and risk director; and additional directors and employees.

Equistone’s Guillaume Jacqueau disclosed that this is the first time the GP has acquired a majority stake in a company that it had previously backed. However, the quality of the asset, the fact that Equistone had already worked closely with the management team and that the management approached the GP to receive backing, prompted Equistone to reinvest. The management approached the GP via a corporate finance adviser.

Equistone confirmed that its Equistone Partners Europe Fund V was used for the transaction, which is now nearly fully deployed. Equistone typically writes equity tickets in the region of €25-125m in businesses with enterprise values of between €50-500m.

The deal was a debt-free transaction.

Under LBO France's ownership, Groupe Karavel bolted on the French travel operators Fram and Plein Vents in 2015, which were experiencing financial difficulties. 

Previous funding
Equistone (then Barclays Private Equity) backed the buyout of Karavel-Promovacances from travel group Opodo in 2007 – a deal valuing the company at approximately €100m. Equistone took a majority stake in the company, while management and members of staff were given the opportunity to co-invest.

LBO France acquired a majority stake in the asset in 2011, in a deal understood to be worth around €200m (more than 10x EBITDA), according to Unquote Data. CIC and Societe Generale reportedly arranged senior debt facilities worth around half of the deal value to finance the transaction. Euromezzanine and Capzanine provided mezzanine funding.

Company
Founded in 2000, Karavel is an online travel agency headquartered in Paris. It underwent several acquisitions, bolting-on Promovacances (2001), Partir Pas Cher (2008), AB Croisière (2008), Un Monde A Deux (2010), Ecotour (2014), and Fram and Plein Vents (2015). The group claims to have around 7 million visitors on its sites every month.

The group employs around 700 staff on total. A source close to the deal confirmed that Promovacances and Fram respectively generate annual turnovers of €350m and €170m. 

People
Karavel-Promovacances – Folco Aloisi, Alain de Mendonça (founders); Cyrille Fradin (finance and risk director); Michel Quenot (managing director).
LBO France – Eva Hoël (investment director).
Equistone Partners – Guillaume Jacqueau (president, managing partner); Thierry Lardinois (partner).

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