Freshfields advises as GTA joins Hotelbeds Group, a company owned by Cinven and CPPIB

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (‘Freshfields’) has advised leading European private equity firm Cinven, the global investment management organisation Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (‘CPPIB’) and Hotelbeds Group (‘Hotelbeds’) on the acquisition of GTA from the Kuoni Group.

The shareholders of Kuoni Group will roll-over a large portion of their proceeds from GTA into the combined Hotelbeds/GTA business.

Hotelbeds is the world’s leading ‘bedbank’ and a business-to-business provider of services to the global travel industry, and GTA is a global distributor that provides travel companies with easy access to hotel accommodation and destination services. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including merger control filings and approvals. The Freshfields team was led by partners David Higgins and Victoria Sigeti. Partners Chris Davis, Helen Lethaby and Alan Ryan led on the financing, tax and antitrust aspects of the deal, respectively.  

This deal marks the third transaction pertaining to Hotelbeds that Freshfields has advised on in the last twelve months. In April 2016, it was announced that a team led by David Higgins, Victoria Sigeti, Wessel Heukamp, José Armando Albarrán and Chris Davis advised Cinven and CPPIB on their acquisition of Hotelbeds for an enterprise value of €1.165bn. Earlier this year, the same team advised Hotelbeds on certain aspects of the merger of Tourico Holidays, a wholesale travel provider, with its bedbank business.