Sabre Holdings Completes Acquisition of lastminute.com
20 July 2005 - 7:13PM
Business Wire
Sabre Holdings Corporation (NYSE:TSG) is pleased to announce that
the acquisition of lastminute.com plc ("lastminute") by Travelocity
Europe Limited has completed. This means that the proposal to
redeem lastminute.com's bonds is now unconditional and the bonds
will be redeemed on August 3, 2005. The acquisition price for the
shares in lastminute.com and the redemption price payable in
respect of lastminute.com's bonds equates to an equity value of
approximately GBP 577M (approximately $1,020M) and an enterprise
value of approximately GBP 584M (approximately $1,034M), including
gross debt of approximately GBP 79M (approximately $138M) and
estimated cash at bank in hand of approximately GBP 72M
(approximately $125M). "The addition of lastminute.com to the Sabre
portfolio of travel companies significantly extends our role as a
travel retailer," said Sam Gilliland, president and CEO, Sabre
Holdings. "It increases our international points of sale and
positions us as the leader in the fast growing European online
arena." "We're thrilled to have Brent Hoberman, and the entire
lastminute.com team, become part of the Travelocity family," said
Michelle Peluso, president and CEO of Travelocity. "I can't think
of another company that shares such a deep rooted philosophy on
both inspiring travel and creating a comprehensive travel
experience. We expect this shared perspective, as well as our
combined global capabilities, to help lastminute.com continue its
success in Europe, and influence Travelocity worldwide." Brent
Hoberman, CEO of lastminute.com has agreed to head up the new
larger organization, reporting to Michelle Peluso, president and
CEO of Travelocity. Damon Tassone, previously president of
Travelocity Europe, would report to Hoberman as Deputy CEO of the
combined business, lastminute.com COO Ian McCaig would expand his
role to become Group Managing Director for the company. Hoberman
commented, "This is a landmark day for lastminute.com. In just
seven years the business has grown from a simple idea into one of
Europe's leading independent online travel and leisure companies.
"This deal marks the beginning of a new chapter in which we look
forward to becoming a leading player on the global stage. Being
part of Travelocity and Sabre Holdings not only gives us global
reach but enables us to offer a wider product-range to benefit our
customers." He added: "While the Travelocity Europe and
lastminute.com brands offer a great cultural fit, there is also a
natural synergy between the two businesses in terms of product and
regional expertise, laying the foundations for a strong combined
business which we intend to be a leader in online travel
worldwide." With the closing of the acquisition, lastminute.com
will be the lead brand for Travelocity in most of Europe, and is
expected to continue expanding. Travelocity will support multiple
brands where it makes sense, with the intent of sharing underlying
infrastructure, technology, and supply to drive cost savings. Some
of the benefits the companies expect to achieve include offering
the wide range of discounted hotels through Travelocity's net rate
hotel program to lastminute.com customers, sharing best-in-class
technology capabilities globally, and providing expanded European
travel options for Travelocity customers over time. Additionally,
Sabre Holdings' agency partners may gain additional European travel
options that are a part of the lastminute.com portfolio.
Integration teams are evaluating all aspects of the businesses to
determine how to structure organizations, where the companies can
take advantage of each others' technology and content, and where
there are cost savings. Within the coming weeks, joint teams will
be laying out plans to quickly execute on revenue and cost savings
opportunities. One of the near term revenue opportunities is
sharing content. For example: -- Travelocity now has more than
20,000 merchant hotel properties. As early as fall of this year,
the companies expect to begin offering Travelocity's hotel program
to lastminute.com customers, giving them many more options in the
U.S. lastminute.com's access to rich European hotel content should
add many more options to Travelocity's customers worldwide over
time. -- Travelocity plans to offer holiday and hotel options from
lastminute.com to Travelocity.co.uk customers as early as this
fall. -- Sabre Travel Network also expects to offer its network of
agency partners expanded European travel options as a result of the
acquisition, for example, Holiday Autos car hire (car rental)
products and lastminute.com holidays. This also represents a new
opportunity for lastminute.com supplier partners. Additional Detail
Sabre Holdings will discuss this transaction in greater detail
during the Webcast on its second quarter financial results on July
28, 2005. About lastminute.com lastminute.com, Europe's leading
independent online travel and leisure group, operates directly in
fourteen European countries and participates in three international
joint ventures, providing travel and leisure inspirations and
solutions to customers. At 31 March 2005 lastminute.com had over
9.8 million subscribers to its weekly newsletter. The business is
based on the idea of matching supply and demand. lastminute.com
offers consumers opportunities to acquire airline tickets, hotel
rooms, holidays (both self packaged and third party packages), car
hire, entertainment tickets, restaurant reservations and food
delivery, specialty services, gifts and auctions. Having completed
14 acquisitions in the past three years, lastminute.com now owns
and operates online brands including holidayautos.com,
travelprice.com, degriftour.com, travelselect.com,
travel4less.co.uk, eXhilaration.co.uk, medhotels.com,
first-option.co.uk, gemstonetravel.com, onlinetravel.com and
lastminute.de. lastminute.com seeks to differentiate itself by
packaging and delivering products and services, such as restaurant
reservations, entertainment tickets and gifts, in convenient, novel
and distinctive ways. The company has been successful in developing
a distinctive and widely recognized brand, which is intended to
communicate spontaneity and a sense of adventure to a youthful
target demographic. lastminute.com was founded by Brent Hoberman
and Martha Lane Fox in 1998. Brent Hoberman remains as CEO of the
company which currently employs approximately 2,000 people
throughout Europe. About Sabre Holdings Sabre Holdings is a world
leader in travel commerce, marketing travel products and providing
distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry.
Sabre Holdings operates in multiple travel distribution channels:
the travel agency channel, the consumer-direct channel and the
business-direct channel. Through the Sabre(R) global distribution
system, subscribers can access information about, and can book
reservations for, among other things, airline trips, hotel stays,
car rentals, cruises and tour packages. The Sabre Travel
Network(TM) business operates the global distribution system and
markets and distributes travel-related products and services
through the travel agency channel. Sabre Holdings engages in
consumer-direct and business-direct travel marketing and
distribution through its Travelocity(R) business (see below). In
addition, the Sabre Airline Solutions(TM) business is a leading
provider of technology and services, including development and
consulting services, to airlines and other travel providers. About
Travelocity With millions of registered users and booking $4.9
billion of travel in 2004, the Travelocity segment markets and
distributes travel-related products and services directly to
individuals, including leisure travelers and business travelers,
through Travelocity websites and contact centers, and websites
owned by its supplier and distribution partners. Travelocity
customers can access offerings, pricing and information about
airlines, hotels, car rental companies, cruise lines, vacation and
last-minute travel packages and other travel-related services. For
business travelers, the Travelocity Business(SM) online corporate
travel agency provides the integrated online corporate travel
technology and full-service offering of our GetThere(R) product
along with the online expertise of Travelocity. Statements in this
disclosure which are not purely historical facts or which
necessarily depend upon future events, including statements about
the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction to Sabre
Holdings Corporation or other statements about anticipations,
beliefs, expectations, hopes, intentions or strategies for the
future, may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on
forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are
based upon information available to Sabre Holdings Corporation on
the date this report was submitted. Sabre Holdings Corporation
undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise. Any forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results
to differ materially from the events or results described in the
forward-looking statements, including risks or uncertainties
inherent in the integration of the acquired business (such as
ensuring the effectiveness of the design and operation of the
internal and disclosure controls of the business to be acquired),
in securing long-term financing for the proposed transaction, or in
competition within the European marketplace from established or
emerging competitors. Sabre Holdings Corporation may not succeed in
addressing these and other risks. Further information regarding
factors that could affect our financial and other results can be
found in the risk factors section of Sabre Holdings Corporation's
most recent filing on Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
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