The Permira Funds and AXA Private Equity today announce the successful completion of the merger of eDreams and GO Voyages, and the acquisition of Opodo from Amadeus, to create one of Europe’s largest groups in online travel.
eDreams, GO Voyages and Opodo each has a robust growth track-record and has shown remarkable resilience by achieving growth rates of 30% during the recent downturn. All three delivered record sales and profits in 2010 and have established a strong presence in all major European markets, with Opodo being well positioned in the UK, France, Germany and in Scandinavia, eDreams in Spain, Italy and Portugal and GO Voyages in France.
eDreams, GO Voyages, Opodo will continue to operate and offer their services in a total of 27 countries, using their respective brand names which are well known and trusted by millions of travellers across Europe. Shared best practices will be applied across the Group to generate significant revenue synergies, broaden product offering and further improve the value proposition and customer service to millions of consumers.
The companies integrating to form the new Group will maintain their teams in France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain and the UK, thereby retaining the strong heritage and know-how of each company. All aspire to continue recruiting in Europe.
The new Group’s management team will comprise executives from the three companies.
The founders of eDreams and GO Voyages will continue to play a major role, with Javier Pérez-Tenessa, co-founder of eDreams, as CEO, Nicolas Brumelot, co-founder of GO Voyages as Deputy CEO and CFO Carlos da Silva, co-founder of GO Voyages as Managing Director for France and Mauricio Prieto, co-founder of eDreams as Chief Marketing Officer.
CEO Javier Pérez-Tenessa says: “We are extremely excited to combine the strengths of the three most successful and knowledgeable teams in the very competitive European Online Travel distribution space. It is extremely difficult to find and retain top talent in this booming Internet industry, so the deep experience and know-how of our teams will open up great opportunities. Each team, on a stand-alone basis, has been a pioneer in Europe, and in 10 years each has managed to achieve European scale. Imagine what we can now do together”.

Leaving Opodo, the company he led as CEO since December 2006, Ignacio Martos says : “Opodo has a first class team that has managed a very successful transformation of the Company over the past five years, achieving healthy growth and performance across major European Countries. I am confident that joining the newly formed group will provide great opportunities for Opodo to continue growing in this competitive sector”.
Both the Permira Funds and AXA Private Equity invested in growth and consolidation with their original backing of eDreams and GO Voyages . The merger marks an important step in the delivery of this initial proposition. As co-owners, the Permira Funds and AXA Private Equity will be represented on the Board of Directors of the new Group and will continue to back its growth.
Carlos Mallo, Head of Permira in Spain, says: “Together with AXA Private Equity we are delighted to have the opportunity to back the merger of three outstanding brands in European online travel today. The respective management teams have grown their businesses very rapidly and successfully to date and we look forward to supporting the expansion of the combined business in the years ahead.
Dominique Senequier (pictured), CEO of AXA Private Equity, says: “Our role as a responsible investor is always to join forces with management and employees to ensure the long-term growth of their company, by supporting its strategy and expansion into new international markets. This is why we invested in GO Voyages – as a privileged partner to the founders of the company. Today’s creation of one of the largest European online travel agents confirms AXA Private Equity’s ability to accelerate the development and diversification of French companies, a true indicator of success”.
