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Business travel firm Britannic bought for £45m
Business travel sources have described the £45.3million purchase of Britannic Travel by Australia-based air travel specialist Flight Centre as being “at the top end of the scale.”
UK based travel management firm Britannic is a licensee of TQ3 Travel Solutions and operates under the TQ3 UK brand. It had been anticipated that Britannic would eventually be sold to TQ3, but it is understood that TQ3 thought the price tag demanded by Britannic md Alan Spence was too high. It instead opted to buy Phoenix Travel in October 2002.
Britannic becomes Flight Centre’s third major business travel acquisition in the past year following the purchase of ITG Limited in Australia and New Zealand in March 2002 and Hong Kong based American International Travel (AIT) in August. Both ITG and AIT are also TQ3 licensees.
Flight Centre Limited managing director Graham Turner said: “We already have an expanding business travel operation focussing on small to medium sized companies in the UK, but it would have taken years of organic growth and major financial investment to achieve Britannic’s results, size and market penetration.”
He added: “We view Britannic as an attractive fit with Flight Centre’s expanding corporate travel businesses, which have traditionally focussed on small to medium sized corporate travel accounts. The addition of Britannic provides us with immediate scale in the UK market, a strong network of branches, a high-end client base and an experienced management team.”
Marc Hildebrand, President and CEO of TQ3 Travel Solutions said: “I am delighted about Flight Centre’s move. This will further strengthen the existing good relationship between Flight Centre and TQ3 and we look forward to continuing to work with Alan Spence.”
Mr Spence has agreed to stay on as managing director at Britannic until December 31, 2007.
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