On the Beach gives Inflexion multi-million pound pay day

PRIVATE equity firm Inflexion has cashed in just under 8% of its shares in listed online holiday firm On The Beach, giving it a £21.5m pay day.

Inflexion floated the Cheadle-based holiday business last September, giving it a market value of £240m  and generating a 3.6x return, while remaining a 37.1% shareholder in the company.

The firm has sold a 7.7% stake in On The Beach, placing 10 million shares late yesterday.

It retains a 29.5% stake and is still the company’s largest shareholder – On The Beach chief executive Simon Cooper is the second largest holder with a 10.9% stake.

In a trading update last week On the Beach Group said it remains on track to achieve expected profitability but highlighted the impact of recent terror attacks on holiday demand.

It also pointed to disruption caused by the administration of the Lowcosttravelgroup, although it did not did not sell any products sourced from the company, and wider macroeconomic uncertainty and weakening of sterling following the EU Referendum.