Articles tagged “private equity”

Mondee's acquisition of fast-growing CTS (Cosmopolitan Travel Service) makes the group North America's largest airfare wholesaler by market size. Notably, Mondee could afford the deal thanks to fresh backing by TCW Group, a giant asset management firm. Lots of institutional money is seeking opportunities in travel this year.

Ninan Chacko's abrupt exit as CEO of Travel Leaders Group elicited "wows" across the travel industry when people heard the news. The reasons behind his departure, and what new strategy controlling shareholder Certares Management has in mind is mere speculation for now.

The deal gives a nice return to private equity firm Livingbridge, which bought Sykes in 2015 for about $75 million. What makes Sykes Cottages stand out is that it has fully built almost all of its technology on its own and has almost 80 percent direct bookings. New majority stakeholder Vitruvian is now placing a bet on short-term rentals.

Short-term rental companies can't believe their luck. Private equity and venture capital continue to pour into their sector despite a hot market. Vacasa has remained an investor darling, in part, because it has branched into opening real estate brokerages to help boost the supply of units.

Many hoteliers will be watching what Cendyn's new president, Tim Sullivan, does to grow his company's software suite, which offers tools for automated marketing, business intelligence, and group sales management. Can it fend off competitors?

Travelstart is taking a logical next step in expanding from its core leisure travel business into corporate travel through an acquisition.

A top-tier private equity firm like General Atlantic should provide a strong tailwind for Kiwi as it branches out from selling plane tickets into other types of travel. But it's a bit surprising that Ctrip.com or another travel conglomerate didn't bite instead.

Given that Thomas Cook released a statement about the potential sale, this looks pretty serious. But it begs the question: Just what will Thomas Cook have left if and when it sells its airlines and Nordics divisions?

Travel Tripper is taking on a distressed asset, Pegasus. Meh. But what's interesting is that Accel-KKR is backing the deal. The support by the private equity firm is yet another sign of more rollups of hotel tech companies to come against a backdrop of hotel software investments by Amadeus, Sabre, and Shiji.

Few companies other than activist investor Elliott Management expressed a serious interest in acquiring Travelport. Elliott twice lost potential private equity partners after they reviewed Travelport's books. The deal price is underwhelming, and that's a signal that some things haven't been going the company's way.