Online travel firm Lastminute.com continued its consolidation of the online travel sector in Europe, announcing the proposed acquisition of Travelprice.com, one of the largest online travel and leisure providers in France and Italy. The acquisition will involve the issue of up to 34,645,088 new lastminute.com shares in exchange for the outstanding shares and warrants of Travelprice.com. Of these, 27,999,940 are expected to be issued at completion and the majority of the balance on or before February 28, 2003, placing a value on Travelprice.com of £31.9 million (approximately €49.6 million). Cazenove & Co acted as the financial advisor to lastminute.com, while Citigate Dewe Rogerson acted as PR advisor.Travelprice.com offers customers online access to flights and package holidays in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium. Travelprice.com grew overall total transaction value from €31.4 million in 2000 to €67.3 million in 2001, a growth rate of 114%, with sales of package holidays growing by 179%. For the year to December 31, 2001 Travelprice.com achieved gross margins of approximately 9.5% and a loss before tax and after exceptional items of €23.2 million.
According to lastminute.com, the deal reinforces its position as the leading online travel and leisure group in France and establishes lastminute.com as the leading online travel and leisure group in Italy. In addition, combined with lastminute.com's leading position in the UK, the acquisition confirms lastminute.com as the number one travel and leisure group in Europe. Furthermore, the deal adds an additional €10.0 million to lastminute.com's available cash.
Allan Leighton, Chairman of lastminute.com said: "This major acquisition in France demonstrates our ability to continue to play a significant role in the consolidation of the online travel market in Europe. The powerful combination of lastminute.com France and Travelprice.com brings scale that is unrivalled in the French online travel market."
Other acquisitions for lastminute.com include its purchase of UK-based online travel firm TravelSelect.com for €14,7 in April, and Urbanbite.com, an online restaurant food deliveries service present in the UK and Netherlands in July 2001.
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