Dubai – Mubasher: Australia's Webjet Ltd has acquired Dubai-based travel firm Destinations of the World (DOTW) from Middle East private equity giant Gulf Capital, one of the largest and most active alternative asset management firms in the Middle East.
The transaction’s total cost amounted to $173 million, according to Gulf Capital’s statement on Monday.
DOTW will join Webjet’s portfolio that includes JacTravel, TotalStay, Sun-hotels, Lots of Hotels and FIT Ruums.
“Gulf Capital has worked very closely with the DOTW management team to build a high-quality global business with a strong market position over the last five years,” Karim El Solh, CEO and managing partner of Private Equity at Gulf Capital, commented.
The acquisition is expected to help WebBeds deliver substantial cost and revenue over the short to medium term.
It is worth noting that DOTW has a portfolio of approximately 12,300 directly contracted hotels, of which around 5,600 are unique to WebBeds, raising its directly contracted inventory pool to over 28,500 hotels.
“WebBeds is focused on helping our clients succeed and enabling our hotel partners to respond to fast-changing market trends,” John Guscic, Webjet’s Managing Director, said.
Under Gulf Capital’s ownership, DOTW has nearly doubled its total transaction value from $279 million in 2013 to an estimated $529 million for the last 12 months to June 2018.
“The acquisition of DOTW will ensure we can accomplish this on an even greater scale than we have achieved to date,” Guscic added.
WebBeds will have more than 2,100 employees, targeting a portfolio of more than 250,000 hotels across the world.
