Ad hoc announcement, Munich, Germany, 28 June 2013, 16:20 CET – TOMORROW FOCUS AG has acquired a further 6 percent of the shares in HolidayCheck AG, which is based in the Swiss town of Bottighofen and operates a number of hotel reviews and holiday booking portals under the same name. As a result, TOMORROW FOCUS AG has increased its total stake from 94 to 100 percent. The price agreed for the shares is in the region of EUR 15 million and will be settled in cash.
Following the takeover of the remaining shares, the yearly dividend previously paid to the minority shareholders of HolidayCheck AG will cease. This will ease the pressure on the TOMORROW FOCUS Group’s financial result from 2014 onwards. In the first quarter of 2013, the dividend paid to the former minority shareholders in respect of HolidayCheck AG’s financial year 2012 was around EUR 0.6 million.
At 24.5 million visits per month (according to the German Audit Bureau of Circulations (IVW) in January 2013), HolidayCheck has the highest reach figures of any travel and holiday booking and reviews portal on the German-language Internet. With around 300 employees, in 2012 the company arranged hotel and package holiday bookings with a gross value of approximately EUR 600 million.
Over the first five months of the current financial year, HolidayCheck AG recorded double-digit percentage increases in both year-on-year revenue and EBITDA.
As well as its subsidiary HolidayCheck AG, TOMORROW FOCUS AG holds majority stakes in three other hotel reviews and holiday booking platforms in France and in the Netherlands. Together with HolidayCheck, their aim for the current financial year is to handle a gross booking volume in the region of EUR 1 billion.