TUI ‘looking to sell’ LateRooms
GERMAN travel giant TUI is reportedly set to check out of Manchester-based LateRooms.com, the online hotel booking service it has owned since 2007
TUI, which owns the Thomson and First Choice brands, is looking to raise hundreds of millions of pounds from the sale of non-core assets, Sky News said.
The broadcaster said that TUI has appointed Arma Partners, a London-based advisory firm, to oversee the sale process.
Based at the Peninsular Building on Cheetham Hill Road, the company, which was founded by three brothers in Salford, was established during the first dotcom boom in 1999, began as an ‘on the day for the day’ booking site for unsold hotel rooms.
It grew rapidly after being backed by private equity firm ECI Partners, before being acquired by First Choice in 2007 in a deal valued at more than £100m.
LateRooms.com, which has a database of more than 55,000 properties around the world, is part of the Hotelbeds Group division of TUI, which has been designated as non-core by the German company’s board.
TUI itself has undergone significant change in recent months with the merger of its UK and German entities creating a new force in the travel industry with a market value of €10bn (£7.3bn).
TUI and Arma Partners declined to comment.
