News 2005
BC Partners and Cinven complete €4.34 billion acquisition of Amadeus
European private equity firms, Cinven and BC Partners, are pleased to announce the completion of the €4.34 billion acquisition of Amadeus Global Travel Distribution, S.A. ("Amadeus") following a successful tender offer for the shares in Amadeus listed on the Madrid, Paris and Frankfurt stock exchanges. The acquisition was undertaken through a holding company, WAM Acquisition, S.A. ("WAM") owned by BC Partners, Cinven, Société Air France, Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España S.A. and Deutsche Lufthansa AG. This acquisition is one of the largest public-to-private transactions ever undertaken in Europe.
Amadeus is a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry. Its comprehensive data processing centre serves over 75,000 travel agency locations and some 10,000 airline sales offices, totalling around 350,000 points of sale located in over 215 markets worldwide.
Amadeus is headquartered in Madrid and quoted on the Madrid, Paris and Frankfurt stock exchanges. For the year ended 31 December 2004, the company reported revenues of €2,056.7m and net income of €208m. The Amadeus data centre is in Erding (near Munich), Germany and its principal development offices are located in Sophia Antipolis (near Nice), France. The company has 6,680 employees worldwide, representing 100 nationalities.
Commenting on the transaction, Stuart McAlpine a partner of Cinven, said:
"We are delighted to have completed this acquisition of a major European business which has become a global leader in its field, based on the quality of its technology and the value it adds to all parties in the travel industry. We are very pleased to have these three major European airlines as our partners in this transaction. The combination of our investment in the business, the support of the airlines and the world-class management team lead us to believe this is an excellent opportunity for all parties."
Commenting on the transaction, Francesco Loredan, partner of BC Partners, added:
"We are also very excited about Amadeus' future growth prospects as a provider of IT Services to the travel industry. Amadeus has invested heavily in the development of a unique portfolio of IT products that ideally suit the requirements of airline customer management (schedule, availability, inventory, reservations, fare quote and ticketing and customer check-in), of travel agents, corporations and the hotel industry. We expect Amadeus to be able to capitalize on its technological edge to achieve superior growth."
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For further information:
Financial Dynamics for Cinven
Edward Bridges/Fergus Wheeler - Tel: +44 207831 3113
Cardew Group for BC Partners
Richard Spiegelberg/Alex Pettifer - Tel: +44 20 7930 0777
Notes to Editors
Amadeus
Through Amadeus, travel agencies and airline offices can make bookings on 95 per cent of the world's scheduled airline seats. The system also provides access to over 54,100 hotel properties, 42 car rental companies serving nearly 30,000 locations, as well as ferry, rail, cruise, tour operators and insurance companies. **At the request of TSP last year this stat was replaced with hotel chain figures, at 31 December it was 322 hotel chains.
Amadeus is a leading IT solutions provider to the airline industry; 150 airlines use Amadeus' Altéa Sell as the sales and reservation system in their offices, to provide passengers with superior and seamless service at optimal cost.
Amadeus' new generation Customer Management Solutions include Altéa Plan (inventory management system) and Altéa Fly (departure control system). British Airways, Qantas and Finnair are the first customers to implement these solutions.
e-Travel, Amadeus' e-commerce business unit, is the global leader in online travel technology and corporate travel management solutions. It services travel agencies in 90 countries, and powers the websites of over 300 corporations and more than 70 airlines and hotels.
BC Partners
BC Partners is a leading pan-European private equity firm, operating through integrated teams based in Geneva, Hamburg, London, Milan and Paris. The latest fund BC European Capital VIII closed in May 2005 with over €5.5bn of commitments and is one of the largest European buy-out fund to date. Over 17 years the firm has developed a long track record of successfully acquiring and developing European businesses in partnership with management, investing in 57 acquisitions with a combined enterprise value of EUR 33.4 billion. Recent investments include the following: Dometic (Sweden €1.0bn), Picard (France, €1.3bn) and Baxi (UK, €984m).
Cinven
Cinven is one of the most prominent and successful investors in the European buyout market. It has led transactions with a value in excess of €45 billion.
From its offices in Frankfurt, London and Paris, Cinven focuses exclusively on creating value in companies headquartered in Europe, which have a minimum enterprise value of €250 million and are market leaders or have the potential to become such.
Established in 1977, the firm has been a totally independent business since 1995. Its current fund, which closed at €4.4 billion in April 2002, is one of the largest sources of private equity dedicated solely to European buyouts. Cinven's recent investments include Numéric â ble (€528 million), World Directories (€2.1 billion), Vendex (€2.5 billion) and Springer (€1.6 billion).
Cinven Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. For further information, please visit the company website: www.cinven.com