There was plenty of festive cheer for travel and tourism shares yesterday as London’s equity markets pushed ahead.
The benchmark FTSE 100 index added 44.4 points to close at 4777.4, while the FTSE 250 gained 32.6 points to end the day at 6843.5.
The biggest news of the day came at the camping and hotel breaks group Holidaybreak, which announced that it had purchased a Dutch online booking agent for £23 million.
The Independent reports that Business Reservation Centre Holland (BRC) has the third most-visited website in the Netherlands and takes more than 350,000 bookings a year.
Richard Atkinson, chief executive of Holidaybreak, is quoted as saying that he has got “a bargain”.
He said: “BRC makes margins, makes profits and generates cash, which is not the same for some other businesses in the same industry.”
City analysts reportedly predicted that the move would increase Holidaybreak’s earnings by four per cent; shares in the company jumped 14p to 615p.
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd
