Cinven buys Hotelbeds for €1.2bn

Amedeo Goria
28 April 2016

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

European private equity house Cinven, alongside Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and the management team, has acquired Hotelbed Group, a Spanish travel service provider.

The deal gave the business an enterprise value of €1.16bn. Cinven co-led the investment alongside CPPIB, while Hotelbeds' management team acquired a minority stake. According to press reports, the investor syndicate acquired the business from the London-listed tour operator Tui for €1.2bn.

Other press reports mentioned that several buyers were interested in the business, including buyout firm EQT Partners, which bought Swiss travel business Kuoni for £850m in February 2016.

According to a source familiar with the situation, the investors intend to invest further in the business to boost its expansion through bolt-on acquisitions, particularly in emerging markets.

HSBC and Morgan Stanley provided an all-senior debt facility to support the transaction.

Company
Headquartered in Palma de Mallorca, Hotelbeds is a B2B company that offers hotel rooms and provides transfer, excursions, tours, meetings and events services to the travel industry. Its main clients are tour operators, travel agencies and corporate clients. The company claims to manage 75,000 hotels across 180 countries.

Founded in 2001, the business has a headcount of 6,150 people and reportedly saw a turnover of €1bn with €69m of EBITDA in 2015.

People
Cinven – Jorge Quemada (partner); Chris Good (senior principal).
CPPIB – Shane Feeney (managing director).
Hotelbeds Group – Joan Vilà (CEO).

Adviser
Bain & Co (commercial due diligence); Freshfields (legal); Lazard (M&A); Morgan Stanley (M&A); HSBC (M&A); PwC (M&A, and financial, ESG & IT due diligence); Deloitte (tax).