Travelport Worldwide has announced an agreement to be acquired by two private equity funds for US$4.4 billion, with the take-over expected to be completed in Q2 2019.
The technology company signed the deal with affiliates of Siris Capital Group, LLC and Evergreen Coast Capital Corp (an affiliate of Elliott Management Corporation) in an all-cash transaction. Under the terms of the agreement, Siris and Evergreen will acquire all outstanding common shares in Travelport.
The company is permitted to actively solicit alternative proposals from third parties until 23 January 2019 and can terminate the agreement with Siris and Evergreen if it chooses to enter a deal with another party.
Travelport’s board of directors ‘unanimously’ approved the deal and have recommended that shareholders do the same.
President and CEO Gordon Wilson commented: “Travelport welcomes the proposed transaction with Siris and Evergreen, who are specialist technology platform investors. Throughout the process, Siris and Evergreen have demonstrated their deep technology expertise together with a strong commitment to the success of our customers, employees and partners. We will continue to develop and invest in our platform to serve the changing needs of our customers in the travel industry. It is very much business as usual at Travelport and we look forward to this new era in the company’s development.”
John Swainson, executive partner at Siris, said: “We have been impressed with Travelport’s industry leadership, global scale and reach, local expertise, world-class management team and commitment to delivering best-in-class solutions for global travel suppliers and agencies. Siris looks forward to building on this legacy and supporting Travelport as it invests in its platform and embarks on a new phase of innovation and industry leadership.”
Jesse Cohn, partner at Elliott, added: “Under Gordon’s leadership, Travelport has built a leading travel technology platform and a leading B2B payments offering in eNett. We look forward to investing in the Travelport team and working with them and Siris to build upon and advance Travelport’s strong track record of technology innovation in serving global travel suppliers and agencies.”
Upon completion of the transaction, Travelport will become a privately-held company, though its headquarters will remain in Langley in the UK.
travelport.com