- Cinven and CPPIB purchase Hotelbeds
- Leads investment on technology, innovation and distribution
Cinven and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has completed the acquisition of Hotelbeds Group, the global provider of B2B hotel room distribution to the travel industry through its brands Hotelbeds and Bedsonline.
Hotelbeds is the largest independent B2B bedbank globally, offering hotel rooms to the travel industry from its inventory of 75,000 hotels in180 countries to its customer base across more than 120 source markets.
Headquartered in Palma de Mallorca, the Group was established in 2001 and employs 6,150 people worldwide.
In addition to hotel accommodation, the Company provides transfers, excursions and tours, meetings and events, visa processing outsourcing and cruise handling services. Hotelbeds’ main clients are tour operators, travel agencies, corporate clients and consumers.
- Cinven and CPPIB believe Hotelbeds is an attractive investment opportunity on the basis of:
- Strong financial performance with double-digit total transaction value (TTV) growth in the bedbank business over the last five years;
- Strong underlying market growth supported by an expected increase in global hotel bookings, the continued shift from offline to online bookings and bedbanks’ further penetration within their core customer channels;
- Hotelbeds’ highly experienced, proven management team, led by Joan Vilà, CEO, with an outstanding track record of driving organic growth in both its hotel supply and customer base;
- Market consolidation opportunities in Europe, Middle East, Asia and the Americas given market fragmentation and potential for further margin improvement through economies of scale; and
- Opportunity to improve bedbank distribution via travel agents and tour operators – particularly in emerging economies – via investment in its sales and contracting team, as well as investment in R&D and IT systems to improve customer efficiencies and services.
- Cinven has a strong track record in the travel technology business, following its successful investment in Amadeus, the leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel industry, which invested more than EUR1 billion in R&D and doubled EBITDA during Cinven’s ownership, generating a return of seven times.
Bedsonline is headed up in Ireland by Thomas McNally.
Joan Vilà, Executive Chairman of Hotelbeds Group, commented: “Becoming an independent company with the backing of Cinven and CPPIB now allows us to invest and focus strongly on our three core capabilities: technology, innovation and distribution – further enhancing our portfolio of revenue-generating services for customers, in particular in the fast-growing bedbank sector where we see strong growth and consolidation opportunities.”
Cinven and CPPIB commented: Under the continued leadership of Joan Vilà and his management team and with the backing of strong investors, Hotelbeds is well positioned to consolidate its leading position in some of the fast growing segments of the travel trade.
