The giant Cendant Corporation is considering selling its travel division.
Henry Silverman, its chairman and ceo, announced from its New York headquarters that it has received a "number of unsolicited indications of interest" to buy the division.
Mr Silverman said that as a result "the Company has decided to further explore other strategic alternatives for that business."
The travel divsion, known as Cendant TDS until last week when it was renamed Travelport, includes online agencies like ebookers and Orbitz, the Galileo GDS and Gullivers Travel Associates, an online hotel and events agency.
Cendant was and still is planning to spin it off as a separate company this October.
It announced last week that it has appointed Jeff Clarke from CA as its new president and ceo. Earlier Gordon Bethune, formerly chairman and ceo of Continental Airlines, was appointed its new chairman.
Mr Silverman said the decision to consider a sale of TDS/Travelport was because it would not
"result in a meterial tax liability as would a sale of Cendant's other divisons."
Whitbread sees profits rise
Whitbread, owners of the UK's largest hotel chain, Premier Travel Inn, reported a sharp rise in pre-tax profits before adjustments of 13.1% to £181.1m in the year ending March 2 2006 compared with £160.1m for the previous year.
Group sales during the year rose by 9.2% from £1,450.5m in 2004/5 to £1,584m in 2005/6.
The company said one of its main strategies was to grow the Premier Travel Inn brand of budget hotels both in the UK and abroad.
The brand has 470 hotels in the UK with 31,000 rooms. Sales during the year rose by 7% and its operating profit increased by 30.4%.
It opened 14 new hotels in the year and plans to have 45,000 rooms by 2010.
Alan Parker, chief executive Whitbread PLC, said: "Premier Travel Inn continues to deliver outstanding performance.
"It is clear that the combination of a Premier Travel Inn and a pub restaurant is a compelling customer proposition and provides industry leading returns.
"We have decided to focus our pub restaurants business on these joint sites and to develop about 100 new Premier Travel Inns from further sites in the existing estate."
Whitbread said the first location for Premier Travel Inns overseas would be Dubai where, in a joint venture with the Emirates Group, it plans to build three properties with a total of 800 rooms.
The first is due to be opened in 2007 and the next two in 2008.