The management team of corporate travel company, TD Travel Limited, has completed a buyout of the business backed by LDC, the leading mid-market private equity investor, for an undisclosed sum.
TD Travel, which was established over 25 years ago and has sales of GBP45m, specialises in providing personalised business travel consultancy and booking services to over 500 companies. It employs a team of 60 experienced consultants across its offices in Wilmslow, Hull, Liverpool and Leeds and it is one of the UK’s leading independent corporate travel management companies.
Its consultants help customers save money on their travel expenditure by advising on optimum routes and ticket types to destinations around the world, using its relationships with hundreds of airlines, hotel companies and rail operators to deliver the most competitive pricing. It performs over 100,000 transactions each year on behalf of its customers, which include large, multi-national businesses across the North of England with global travel requirements, who are supported by a personalised 24-hour service and online reporting.
As a result, TD Travel is able to drive significant cost savings to clients, reducing their overall travel expenditure whilst improving the quality of service.
The MBO team is led by Ian White, who joined the business in 2005 as Commercial Director having previously been CEO of travel management company Corporate Travel International. Other management team members are Chris Needham, former founder and CEO of hotel booking provider Hotelscene and Operations Director Chris Mollan who has been with the business for five years.
As part of the deal, Dick Porter, a co-founder of STA Travel and previously Chairman of private-equity backed business travel company Griffin Travel, will join the business as Non-Executive Chairman.
Ian White, CEO of TD Travel, says: “Securing the backing of LDC is a strong endorsement of the business we’ve built to date, particularly our customer service ethos. We’re now ideally placed to accelerate the growth of the business by scaling our core model in new regions and evolving our customer proposition to include new products and services. Our ambition is to provide a further enhanced, end to end business travel service to customers, at a time when they are seeking added-value and cost efficiencies across their travel expenditure.”
Tony Norwood (pictured), who led the investment for LDC and also joins the board, said: “This is about backing both a proven business model and a dynamic, ambitious management team. TD Travel has developed a genuinely differentiated proposition as a consultant-led travel management company securing the loyalty of an impressive customer base which relies heavily on its expertise and cost-saving ability. Ian and his team have a huge amount of experience across the entire travel sector and we look forward to supporting them as they continue to build on the business’ impressive historical track record and lead it through the next phase in its development.”
LDC previously backed corporate travel management company ATPI, which is successfully sold to Barclays Private Equity in 2008.
The transaction is the third major deal by LDC this year, following its investment in Pertemps Network Group, the UK’s largest independent provider of specialist outsourced recruitment services and temporary employment solutions, and Workplace Systems International, the provider of cloud management workplace systems.
Last year, LDC invested over GBP360m in 18 new companies, as well as providing additional funding to existing portfolio companies.
John Swarbrick, Senior Director at LDC, says: “Similar to our investment in Driver Hire last year, this latest transaction underscores LDC’s continued commitment to small and medium sized businesses across the Yorkshire region that are looking for the capital and support to fulfill their potential.”
Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP advised LDC and management on the deal.
Tim Clarke, M&A Partner at BDO, says: “The management team at TD Travel has significant experience and industry know-how. The MBO will no doubt prove to be a huge success, with the new team taking the business from strength to strength. The travel and leisure industry has experienced considerable change over the last few years and we are witnessing a resurgence of consolidation and M&A activity to bolster market share.”
