BDC buys Cruise.co.uk for £52m

BDC stated it plans to build on Cruise.co.uk's ongoing growth. The investor claims the company's sales grew by 23% and EBITDA grew by 30% in the last three years, while in 2015, its turnover grew by 15% to £104.5m.

According to BDC, the UK ocean cruise market is the second largest globally, with value forecast to grow from £2.5bn in 2015 to £3bn in 2019, due in part to an ageing population. Cruise.co.uk hopes to expand internationally in the coming years.

Royal Bank of Scotland provided senior debt financing for the transaction.

It is not Bridgepoint's first venture into the cruise market. In August 2015, the investor sold cruise operator Ponant to Artémis, the holding company of French entrepreneur Francois Pinault, for €562m. It had acquired the business in September 2012.

Previous funding
Risk Capital Partners acquired Cruise.co.uk in August 2013, alongside the company's management team. 

Company
Online travel agent Cruise.co.uk spun out of Carnival Corporation in 2007. The company is based in the Midlands and employs 170 people. The website also has an online cruise review forum, which it claims has 110,000 members and 17 million web visits per annum.

People
Bridgepoint Development Capital - Adrian Willetts (partner).
Risk Capital Partners - Luke Johnson (chair).

Advisers
Equity - KPMG (corporate finance, tax, financial due diligence); Eversheds (legal); OC&C (commercial due diligence), Intuitus (IT due diligence), ERM (ESG), Marsh (insurance due diligence); White Hart Associates (regulatory due diligence).
Vendor - BDO (corporate finance); CMS (legal); Armstrong (commercial due diligence); Deloitte (financial due diligence).
Management - Altium (M&A).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• UK / Ireland
• Consumer
• Exits
• United Kingdom
• Bridgepoint