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 €2,056.7 million and net income of €208 million. 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."