One of Sweden’s top investment firms is planning an £800m raid on a division of FTSE 100 travel giant Tui, according to a Sunday Times report.
EQT Partners, which agreed an £850m takeover of Swiss travel company Kuoni last week, has drawn up plans to merge it with Tui’s Hotelbeds arm, City sources said.
Tui, owner of the Thomson and First Choice holiday brands, put Hotelbeds up for sale last year. The unit offers rooms to travel agents, with a database of thousands of beds in more than 100 countries. It recorded earnings before interest and tax of €117m (£89m) in the year to September.
Significant interest
Tui, listed in London and Frankfurt, hired advisers at Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch to sell the subsidiary last year
Tui Group announced plans to offload Hotelbeds Group last year. The decision followed the sale of B2C brand LateRooms to Cox & Kings for £8.5m and the closure of AsiaRooms and Malapronta.
EQT’s bid for Kuoni has put it in pole position, The Sunday Times said, but Tui looks set to invite further bids in an attempt to push the price over €1 billion.
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