DGAP-News: TOMORROW FOCUS AG / Key word(s): Acquisition
TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires majority stake in French online travel
agent Ecotour.com (RPC Voyages SAS) - Plans to expand HolidayCheck.fr
into integrated ratings and booking platform
16.08.2012 / 08:32
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Corporate News
TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires majority stake in French online travel agent
Ecotour.com (RPC Voyages SAS) - Plans to expand HolidayCheck.fr into
integrated ratings and booking platform
Munich, Germany, 16 August 2012 - TOMORROW FOCUS AG will acquire a 55
percent stake in the French online travel agent ecotour.com (RPC Voyages
SAS) with effect from 1 September 2012. Ecotour founder Guillaume
Victor-Thomas and other existing investors will retain 45 percent of the
company's shares. Guillaume Victor-Thomas will continue to act as
chairperson. Matthias Papet, Country Manager at HolidayCheck France, will
be appointed managing director. The aim of the takeover is to link
Ecotour.com's advanced booking platform with HolidayCheck France's ratings
content and SEO (search engine optimisation) expertise.
The total purchase price of between EUR 8.5 million and EUR 12 million -
depending on the company's future performance - includes the licence for
the French hotel ratings platform HolidayCheck.fr of TOMORROW FOCUS
subsidiary HolidayCheck A for a sum of EUR 4 million and also a capital
contribution. A further agreement has been signed with the founders and
existing shareholders covering the acquisition of the remaining shares.
Ecotour.com is based in Courbevoie near Paris. It is a licensed online
travel agent that covers the entire bookings value chain. It has developed
its own booking technology with links to over fifty tour operators. Other
travel industry providers also use the technology as a white label solution
and SaaS (software as a service) in order to boost their productivity.
Ecotour's booking technology makes it possible to combine individual
flights and hotels using a system of 'dynamic packaging'. This extends the
range of services that can be booked on the site. The integration of
Ecotour's booking technology into the French HolidayCheck platform will
transform HolidayCheck.fr into an integrated ratings and bookings portal
along the lines of HolidayCheck AG in the German-speaking countries
(Germany, Austria and Switzerland). Ecotour.com has generated solid growth
in revenue to establish itself as one of France's top five online travel
agents. It will continue to operate as an independent portal alongside
HolidayCheck.fr, whose main contribution to Ecotour.com will take the form
of hotel ratings content. The combined expertise of the two companies will
primarily be used to achieve a significant increase in traffic on both
platforms using a variety of strategies including targeted SEO measures.
According to travel industry surveys, France is the biggest package tour
market in Europe after Germany, the UK and the Netherlands. Given its
relatively low proportion of online bookings compared to other European
countries, there is considerable potential for growth. TOMORROW FOCUS AG's
acquisition of Ecotour.com will speed up the expansion of HolidayCheck AG
in the French market and is further evidence of its strategy of developing
both fast-growing and established markets.
Stefan Winners, CEO at TOMORROW FOCUS AG
'This acquisition offers tremendous synergies and will help both platforms
to expand rapidly. Our own brand HolidayCheck France, which has built up
substantial traffic over a short period, can now use ecotour.com's
excellent booking technology and broker package tours itself. In return,
Ecotour.com will benefit from HolidayCheck AG's valuable ratings content
and its expertise in the field of search engine optimisation. It is an
ideal combination that will help both companies to achieve stronger
growth.'
Guillaume Victor-Thomas, Ecotour.com founder
'Our market vision is very much based on the use of technology. How can we
boost sales and increase both quality and acceptance while offering
extremely fair prices? This partnership will bring both Internet portals
closer to their users. In particular, the new hybrid model combining media
and sales represents a big step forward. It is hugely innovative. Very
soon, we will be able to draw on the expertise of the HolidayCheck teams to
add to our own online marketing know-how. That goes particularly for SEO,
which is the natural yardstick around which our whole business revolves.'
Friedrich von Scanzoni, Managing Director HolidayCheck International
'The acquisition is a major step forward in the key French market, and it
shows how determined we are to take on the international competition. The
two businesses and teams complement each other perfectly and confirm our
strategy of driving international expansion both through organic growth and
acquisitions.'
About Ecotour.com
The French online travel agent Ecotour.com was founded in 2006 and is based
in Courbevoie, France. The company has a workforce of 23 and expects to
generate bookings revenue in the region of EUR 50 million in 2012. Thanks
to its use of new technology, Ecotour.com is able to offer a particularly
comprehensive range of package tours at very attractive prices. Since 2009,
the company has offered its own booking technology as an SaaS (software as
a service) and white label solution.
About HolidayCheck AG
HolidayCheck AG operates the biggest German-language holiday bookings and
feedback portal on the Internet. The company is based in Bottighofen, just
across the Swiss border from the German town of Constance. With over 250
employees, HolidayCheck AG currently handles package holidays worth over
EUR 600 million a year. Today, with over 25.5 million visits every month
(German Information Society for Measuring the Distribution of Advertising
Media - IVW, July 2012), HolidayCheck AG operates the most important
German-language holiday ratings portal as well as a TÃV-certified travel
agency. In response to growing international demand, the holiday platform
is now available in ten languages.
About TOMORROW FOCUS AG
TOMORROW FOCUS AG (ISIN DE005495329) is based in Munich, Germany, and is
one of the leading exchange-listed Internet groups in Germany.
The Group has a workforce of around 700, and its business operations are
divided into three segments: Transactions, Advertising and Technologies.
The Transactions segment includes HOLIDAYCHECK AG, which operates a number
of hotel rating and travel booking portals by the same name; WEBASSETS
B.V., which operates the ZOOVER hotel rating portals and the
METEOVISTA/WEERONLINE weather portals; TOMORROW TRAVEL B.V., which operates
the Dutch online travel agent TJINGO; ELITEMEDIANET GmbH, which operates
the premium online dating agency ELITEPARTNER.de; and JAMEDA GmbH, which
operates the physician recommendations portal JAMEDA.de.
The Advertising segment includes TOMORROW FOCUS MEDIA GmbH, one of the
leading German online marketing providers, which markets numerous
well-known portals on behalf of business partners in addition to those
operated by the Group itself, such as the news and utility journalism site
FOCUS Online and the stock market information portal FINANZEN100.
The Technologies segment includes CELLULAR GmbH, one of Germany's leading
full-service agencies for mobile platforms, and TFT GmbH, which provides
technology and creative services for web-based IT and e-commerce solutions.
Media & Investor Relations contact:
TOMORROW FOCUS AG
Armin Blohmann
Neumarkter Strasse 61
81673 München
Germany
phone: +49 (0)89 9250-1256
fax: +49 (0)89 9250-2403
email: a.blohmann@tomorrow-focus.de
www.tomorrow-focus.de
http://twitter.com/tomorrowfocus
http://facebook.de/tomorrowfocus
http;//youtube.com/tomorrowfocus
Photo material and logos can be found in our media newsroom at
www.tomorrow-focus.de/newsroom
End of Corporate News
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Language: English
Company: TOMORROW FOCUS AG
Neumarkter Str. 61
81673 München
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)89 9250-1256
Fax: +49 (0)89 9250-2403
E-mail: a.blohmann@tomorrow-focus.de
Internet: www.tomorrow-focus.de
ISIN: DE0005495329
WKN: 549532
Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard);
Freiverkehr in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover,
München, Stuttgart
End of News DGAP News-Service
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181853 16.08.2012
DGAP-News: TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires majority stake in French online travel agent Ecotour.com (RPC Voyages SAS) - Plans to expand HolidayCheck.fr into integrated ratings and booking platform
| Source: EQS Group AG