One of Australia’s largest privately-owned corporate travel management companies, TravelEdge Group, has been acquired by Helloworld Travel Limited for $28 million.
In an announcement yesterday, Helloworld Travel Limited said the consideration for the acquisition will be funded from a new bank facility, with potential for additional consideration to the vendors in FY21 if certain defined earnings thresholds in FY20 are satisfied. The additional consideration is not considered material. The acquisition will be earnings accretive in FY20 and beyond. The consideration represents an FY19 EBITDA multiple of approximately six times.
Kim Wethmar, CEO of TravelEdge, said she is very pleased that TravelEdge will now be a part of Helloworld Travel Limited, adding that she can see significant benefits for customers and opportunities for employees. Kim, who joined TravelEdge four years ago, will continue to run the business from its Sydney headquarters.
TravelEdge operates through six divisions and offers a full suite of services of corporate travel services including travel management solutions, academic travel services, event and group planning and delivery, holiday and leisure services and travel prizing and incentives.
• TravelEdge Corporate offers the full range of end to end solutions for the corporate travel market;
• Communico Services offers tailored in-house travel management solutions for corporate clients;
• TravelEdge Events offers event management, groups travel, conference and meetings services;
• Business Travel by STA offers travel management services for leading Australian learning institutions;
• TravelEdge Holidays provides exclusive offers and packages for leisure travelers; and
• Granted Worldwide offers travel prizes and employee incentive programs for corporate clients.
Andrew Burnes, CEO and Managing Director of Helloworld Travel Limited said “We are very pleased with the addition of TravelEdge to the Helloworld Travel Limited business. This will allow HLO to expand in the corporate and education travel sectors and the business complements our existing corporate operations in Australia and New Zealand with additional expertise knowledge and capability.
“With nearly 20 years’ experience, TravelEdge is a highly respected TMC business that generated over $300m of TTV in FY19. We will continue to provide outstanding services to TravelEdge’s many clients across the corporate and education sectors in Australia.”
“TravelEdge is a leading specialist corporate travel business and adds great strength to our expanding TMC businesses in both Australia and New Zealand. QBT was recently awarded the corporate travel contracts for News Corp Australia and Foxtel and is expanding in other areas and we look forward to continuing to provide outstanding service to our many corporate clients throughout Australia and New Zealand.”
