Takeover boosts Lastminute's capacity
Published: 08 Apr 2002 17:22 BST
Online travel site Lastminute.com announced on Monday that it was buying Travelselect.com, a UK-based supplier of cheap airline tickets, for £9m.
Travelselect.com sells flight and Eurostar train tickets, car hire, hotel rooms and insurance via the Internet, and this deal will triple the number of airline flights offered by Lastminute.com.
Lastminute has seen its share price more than triple since hitting its lowest point in September, and analysts believe the purchase of Travelselect.com is an indication that the online travel industry is set for a buoyant future.
In a statement, Brent Hoberman, chief executive of Lastminute.com, claimed that the two companies were complementary, and that the takeover would help his firm to offer new services to customers.
"Travelselect.com adds substantially to the range and scale of lastminute.com's flights business, and this will be particularly important when we introduce dynamic packaging later this year, enabling customers to create their own flight and hotel packages," Hoberman said.
In the past six months, Lastminute.com's share price has been quietly motoring upwards. After dropping to 17p on 21 September amid concerns that terrorism would cause significant damage to the travel industry, the share price has risen steadily and reached a peak of 74p in early March. It is currently around 61.5p.
Lastminute.com, which will issue 14.5 million shares to finance this takeover, is expected to hit break-even point this summer.
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