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Western & Oriental in £3.1m conference and incentive deal
Luxury travel group Western & Oriental is acquiring a conference and incentive travel company for £3.1 million.
The purchase of Eclipse Conference Management is the ninth acquisition since W&O’s IPO in March 2006 and follows last week’s takeover of Key2Holidays.
The latest deal increases annualised sales in the group’s conference and incentive division to around £12 million.
Eclipse has been established for 10 years and has a number of client companies mainly in the pharmaceutical and government agency sectors. It made a pre-tax profit of more than £600,000 on sales of £6 million last year.
The deal increases coverage of the sector by group’s existing conference and incentive business, which includes Lynton Cooper and Travel Management Team.
W&O chairman David Howell said: “We continue to deliver on our strategy with the second acquisition in the last few days and since our further fund raising in June 2007.
“We look forward to working with the Eclipse team who have successfully grown their business over the last 10 years.
“This acquisition increases our scale significantly in the luxury conference and incentive market and brings an additional profitable business into the group. The group is now well placed to have a substantial effect in the important conference and incentive sector.
Discussions continue with a number of other potential acquisitions as we continue our “buy and build” strategy,” he added.
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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