THE Kuoni Group has received “quite a lot of interest” for the tour operating businesses it is selling, with CEO Peter Meier confident that these units will be sold by this year and fetch more than their overall net book value.
Kuoni is selling Kuoni Switzerland, UK, Benelux, Scandinavia/Finland, Hong Kong/China and India, estimated to be worth an overall net book value of some 250 million Swiss francs (US$260 million).
In an interview with TTG Asia e-Daily on the sidelines of the WTTC Summit in Madrid, Meier defended the decision to make public the intention to sell as not only appropriate for employees and shareholders, but also to cast the net wider for prospective buyers.
“If you don’t make it public, you automatically limit yourself only to the people you are aware that may be interested,” he said.
“When we announced it, some of the names that came forward were a surprise,” he added.
But Meier would not be drawn into a discussion on prospective buyers, neither denying nor confirming speculation that Germany’s DER Touristik is the latest suitor.
Except for Hotelplan Switzerland, which broke the news to TTG Asia e-Daily that it was interested to buy Kuoni Switzerland and subsequently followed up with Kuoni about it, all others were general expressions of interest, he said.
“We’ve received quite a lot of interest from people who have asked us to send the papers. Since announcing it in January, we’ve put together an eight-page, non-confidential sale memorandum describing the business and we’re sending this out. And that’s the phase we’re at today,” said Meier.
Meier stressed that Kuoni was not selling a sick child; rather, these businesses were profitable and sizeable, with a strong position in their markets. The buyer Kuoni is keen on is a player that can take the business forward.
“The likelihood is high that someone who has a good idea and wants to bring the business forward will also be prepared to pay a good price for it,” he said.
Asked to debunk the biggest misconception about the sale, Meier said: “Some people are always concerned that the whole travel sector has a ‘winner takes it all approach’, that at the end of the day, there can be only Priceline or Expedia, etc. This thinking is fundamentally wrong, because the travel sector is so large.
“All of us are intermediaries – we don’t own hotels or consumers. It’s not a ‘winner takes it all’; there is room for many players and tour operating is hardly negative.”
– Read the full View from the Top, TTG Asia, May 15, 2015
