Fashion
ASX-listed Flight Centre Travel Group bought two local travel firms for a combined A$19.5 million as it seeks to expand its footprint in New Zealand, making it one of the country’s biggest travel management groups.
In its annual earnings published to the ASX on Thursday morning, the Brisbane-based company said it has agreed to buy Travel Managers Group (TMG) for an initial A$8.37m and Executive Travel Group (ETG) for an initial A$11.17m, each with working capital adjustments to be made.
TMG provides systems and support to a network of 180 travel brokers and operates a 22-shop franchise network including 12 TravelSmart shops and 10 other non-branded stores, while ETG is New Zealand’s biggest independent corporate travel manager.
The Australian travel agent’s New Zealand business generated total transaction value of A$1.1 billion in the year ended June 30, 2017, up 10 per cent from a year earlier.
Chief operating officer Melanie Waters-Ryan said the business was “successfully executing its key global strategies which include enhancing productivity in the short-term”.
“The company has also strengthened its presence in the home-based/independent contractor sector, a rapidly growing part of the travel industry, by recently agreeing to buy established networks in both New Zealand (Travel Managers) and Australia,” she said.
When it announced the deals at the beginning of August, Flight Centre said the purchases made New Zealand its fifth biggest business globally.
