Holidaybreak shares soar on takeover talks
HOLIDAYBREAK, owner of education holiday brand PGL as well as Eurocamp and Keycamp, said today it is in takeover talks.
The group, based near Northwich, said the talks with an un-named third party “may or may not lead to an offer being made” for the business.
The company made the brief statement after a significant rise in its share price in the last week from 293p to around 330p (9%).
Today’s announcement sent shares up a further 17% to 373p. Before today’s rise the business has a market cap £244m.
The statement said: “As a result of a movement in Holidaybreak’s share price, Holidaybreak announces that it is in discussions with a third party which may or may not lead to an offer for Holidaybreak.
“A further announcement will be made in due course.”
Unlike the major tour operators such as Thomas Cook – which has made a number of profit warnings amid slumping consumer demand – Holidaybreak has proved to be resilient, mainly down to the success of PGL.
Chief executive Martin Davies, who also runs the education holiday arm, has sought to focus the business on this area and last month sold the group’s London-based theatre booking agency for nearly £11m.
David Gorman, an analyst with Manchester-based Milkstone, said the buyer could be another company or a private equity group.
“It’s an unusual business in many ways to acquire because there’s a broad range of different holiday companies in there and it would be interesting to see what an acquirer would want to do with them,” Gorman said.
