LateRooms snapped up by Indian group
INDIAN leisure business Cox & Kings has snapped up Mancheste-based LateRooms for £8.5m, a fraction of the £108m its previous owner, First Choice, paid for it in 2006.
Cox & Kings, which already owns Cheshire-based Holidaybreak the education holidays provider, said the acquisition of the business was in line with its goal of beefing-up its online presence and its business to consumer proposition.
German holiday giant TUI Group – which merged with First Choice in 2007 – put LateRooms up for sale in May as part of a refocus on its tourism business.
Cox & Kings said: “LateRooms is a profitable, leading online hotel booking specialist in the UK. Its extensive offering encompasses a full range of accommodation options with over 54,800 properties globally, which can be booked up to a year in advance. LateRooms has a 3.5 million opted-in and active consumer database and had around 93 million online visits in the financial year ending September 30 2015, generating total transaction value (TTV) of £300m and net revenues of around £50m.”
It added: “The group also expects to drive synergies and value from LateRooms’ association with the Cox & Kings subsidiary, SuperBreak Mini-Holidays, a leading short break packaged holiday specialist in the UK. LateRooms’ industry-leading technology platform, now built for mobile is a key strength which Cox & Kings will look to leverage more widely across its footprint.”
Peter Kerkar, director, Cox & Kings, said, “We are confident that bringing the LateRooms brand and technology into the fold will provide a significant boost to Cox & Kings’ growth trajectory and technology capabilities”.
Hugo Kimber, executive chairman, Cox & Kings Leisure Division-EU, said, “The acquisition of LateRooms and access to its online technology platform bolsters the Group’s delivery capabilities across all geographies for the leisure business.
LateRooms was founded by three brothers who owned a Salford marketing agency. They sold a stake to private equity firm ECI, which unlocked further growth and led to the £100m acquisition by First Choice.
