Acquisition of Hotels4U.com

14 Feb 2008 07:01

Thomas Cook Group PLC14 February 2008 14 February 2008 THOMAS COOK ACQUIRES HOTELS4U.COM Strengthening Thomas Cook's position in the independent travel sector Thomas Cook Group plc ("Thomas Cook") (LSE: TCG.L) today announces that it hasagreed to acquire the entire issued share capital of hotels4U.com Limited("Hotels4U") from Centurion Holiday Group Limited ("CHG"). The initialconsideration, net of amounts to be reinvested by Haim Perry, Managing Directorof Hotels4U and Jacky Bedlow, Finance Director, is £21.8 million payable in cashfrom internal resources. The management's reinvestment is subject to earn outarrangements based on the profitability of Hotels4U up to 2013. Hotels4U, which sells exclusively via the internet, is the UK's largestindependent bed bank, providing accommodation and resort transfers to over500,000 customers per year and has access to in excess of 30,000 hotelsinternationally. The current Hotels4U senior management team will remain withthe business, including Haim Perry who founded the company in 2003. Commenting on the acquisition agreement, Manny Fontenla-Novoa, Group ChiefExecutive, Thomas Cook Group plc said: "We are delighted to have signed thisagreement with Hotels4U. This is an acquisition that fits perfectly with ourstrategy of enhancing Thomas Cook's position in the independent travel sectorand will also further strengthen our mainstream business. Hotels4u is already ahighly successful business led by an experienced management team and we lookforward to working with Haim Perry and his team to further develop our positionin this rapidly growing segment and to building on our customer offering." Haim Perry, Managing Director of Hotels4U, added: "I am delighted that we havereached an agreement with Thomas Cook, who we believe is our ideal partner goingforward. As a business we now have access to the international markets thatThomas Cook is present in and therefore the opportunity for further growth." Ends For further information please contact: Brunswick Tel: +44 (0)20 7404 5959 Fiona Antcliffe Sophie Brand About Thomas Cook Group plc Thomas Cook Group plc was formed on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AGand MyTravel Group plc. The new company is one of the world's leading leisuretravel groups with sales of around £8 billion (€12 billion), 19 millioncustomers, around 33,000 employees, a fleet of 97 aircraft, a network of over3,000 owned or franchised travel stores and a number of hotels and resortproperties. It has operations in four regions: UK & Ireland; Continental Europe(Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Sloveniaand Slovakia); Northern Europe (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland) and NorthAmerica (Canada and USA); and German airlines operating under the Condor brand. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange