Thomas Cook India to buy imaging solutions provider for attractions

Thomas Cook India Group is acquiring a 51 per cent stake in Digiphoto Entertainment Imaging (DEI), an imaging solutions and services provider, at an enterprise value of US$40.6 million.

The acquisition marks Thomas Cook India Group’s entry into an adjacent sector, complementary to its travel & travel related services portfolio.

Madhavan Menon, chairman and managing director, Thomas Cook (India), said: “Our acquisition of DEI, a global imaging solutions and services giant, presents the Thomas Cook India Group an opportunity to participate in an exciting new business space, adjacent to our core travel services portfolio that is both PAT and free cash accretive from day one.”

Elaborating on common markets and synergies, he said: “We see an immediate opportunity for our outbound customers from India and Hong Kong, as well as our inbound and DMS customers across our global network. With the growing demand for experiential travel and social sharing, DEI’s partnerships with attractions, theme parks, water parks and resorts will further enhance our travel services portfolio in line with our philosophy of creating long-term shareholder value.”

Established in 2004, Dubai-based DEI is a technology driven company with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Mumbai, Orlando and Kuala Lumpur. DEI focuses on imaging solutions for the attractions industry with an end-to-end turnkey model providing equipment, software, talent and operational expertise consultation to partners.

With a network of over 120 partners, DEI is present at more than 250 venues across over 14 countries (Hong Kong, Singapore, the UAE, Macau, China, the US, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Mauritius, the Maldives, Egypt, India and Kuwait), and completed 3.6 million transactions in 2018.

The strategic location of its regional headquarters in Singapore since 2012 has enabled DEI to successfully securing the majority share of imaging partnerships in Singapore, including the Wildlife Reserves Singapore, One Faber Group and Marina Bay Sands.

DEI is aggressively expanding its presence into Greater China, including Hong Kong, and its proprietary imaging solution has enabled payment gateway localisation for the local Chinese market expanding into AliPay and WeChat Pay.

Their local hosting and content distribution allows guests to share memories on Chinese social media channels like WeChat, Sina Weibo, QQ and Qzone. DEI intend to focus on rapid growth over the preceding years in this Far East belt.

KS Ramakrishnan, founder CEO and president of DEI, said: “DEI is leading the digital transformation of the guest photo journey through NFC, facial recognition and other state of the art proprietary technology enabling the guest to receive and share their memories in real time.”

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