Following weeks of market talk and amid cuts made in the company, Travelport is to be acquired by affiliates of Siris Capital Group, LLC and Evergreen Coast Capital Corp. in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $4.4 billion.
The transaction, expected to close second quarter next year, will see Siris and Evergreen, the private equity affiliate of Elliott Management Corporation, acquire all the outstanding common shares of Travelport for $15.75 per share in cash.
The deal, when completed, will see Travelport move back to being a privately held company.
There will be a “Go-shop” period until January, 23, 2019, whereby other bids can be entertained ahead of the closing date of the original deal. Doug Steenland, chairman of the Board of Directors of Travelport, said the agreement “represents the best way to maximise value for shareholders” and “also enables the company to continue its work to position itself for growth in the evolving global travel industry”.
The company’s ENett payment business, which brought in $86 million in revenues in the third quarter of 2018, a growth of 58% year on year, was cited by both acquirers in their statements.
Frank Baker, co-founder of Siris Capital, commented that “Travelport is redefining the travel payments industry through eNett, a disruptive and fast-growing leader in secure, virtual travel payments”.
And Jesse Cohn, Partner at Elliott, said that “Travelport has built a leading travel technology platform and a leading B2B payments offering in eNett. We look forward to investing in the Travelport team and working with them and Siris to build upon and advance Travelport’s strong track record of technology innovation in serving global travel suppliers and agencies.”
Gordon Wilson, president and CEO of Travelport, commented that Siris and Evergreen had demonstrated their deep technology expertise together with a strong commitment to the success of customers, employees and partners.
“We will continue to develop and invest in our platform to serve the changing needs of our customers in the travel industry. It is very much business as usual at Travelport and we look forward to this new era in the company’s development.”
While it is unclear what the new leadership structure will look like post-transaction, it is expected that more changes will be made at Travelport, whose headquarters will remain in Langley, U.K.
