Travelzest raises £5.15m through float on AIM

Friday, 04 Oct, 2005 0

Acquisitive new travel group Travelzest has raised £5.15 million through a placing on the Alternative Investment Market.

The company, headed by former TUI UK chief Chris Mottershead, has been valued at £10.15 million.

As previously reported by TravelMole, Travelzest is seeking to acquire specialist niche travel businesses in the ski and golf sectors and is also interested in internet-based travel distribution companies.

The hunt for further acquisitions follows the purchase of retail, online and tour operating firm Holiday Express for an initial £2.18 million.

Travelzest was formed from the purchase of French cottage holiday firm VFB Holidays, which had turnover of £11.5 million in the year to October 31 last year, carrying 24,000 passengers.

Mottershead told TravelMole he wanted to develop Travelzest into a £100 million turnover business in three years and would be looking to make between four and five acquisitions a year.

He said he saw the Holiday Express www.holiday.co.uk online brand as ripe for development into a portal for the portfolio of businesses Travelzest plans to create.

Mottershead said: “Travelzest has a focused buy and build strategy designed to create a group of specialist travel businesses servicing the holiday needs of a wide range of people outside the core Spanish package market.

“The rapidly growing online travel retail market is also of particular interest. We intend to grow the company through the acquisition of high calibre teams and businesses seeking to leverage the synergistic benefits of being part of a diverse group of specialist companies.

“We believe that having the company’s shares traded on AIM will provide us with an attractive currency with which we can implement our growth strategy.”

Report by Phil Davies

Phil Davies

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