UK-based leisure travel group Thomas Cook Group plc (TCG.L) said Monday it agreed to acquire the remaining 49.99% economic stake in Gold Medal International Limited, a UK travel company, from its founder Ken Townsley for GBP 47.5 million.
Earlier in April 2009, Thomas Cook had purchased 50.01% economic interest in Gold Medal for a cash payment of GBP 24.9 million.
Manny Fontenla-Novoa, Group chief executive said, "Today's agreement to acquire the remaining stake in Gold Medal underlines our commitment to further strengthening our position in the growing independent travel sector."
Thomas Cook indicated the acquisition of the balance Gold Medal business in advance of its call option becoming exercisable on 31 March 2010 is in order to accelerate its synergies. Annual synergies were originally expected in excess of GBP 4 million. The company now expects additional annual synergies of GBP 10 million from the integration of Gold Medal with other Thomas Cook scheduled businesses in the UK over time.
For the year ended 30 September 2009, Gold Medal achieved pro-forma EBITDA of GBP 10.5 million and profit before tax of GBP 8.1 million on gross sales of GBP 309.7 million.
The acquisition is structured so that Thomas Cook acquires an additional 26.31% interest in Thomas Cook Investments Limited, the holding company of Gold Medal, for GBP 25 million to be satisfied by way of a non-interest bearing loan note, redeemable between April 2011 and October 2011. The remaining 23.68% interest in TCI is expected to be acquired through the exercise of a series of call and put options between January 2010 and October 2010 for a further £22.5 million.
TCG.L closed Monday's trading at 230.50p, up 5.50p or 2.44%, on a volume of about 5.0 million shares.
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