Close Brothers Corporate Finance advised ECI Partners and the other shareholders of LateRooms.com on the disposal of LateRooms for £108 million in cash to First Choice Holidays PLC.
LateRooms (www.laterooms.com|) is a leading online price comparator and seller of late availability hotel rooms, offering discounted prices to consumer and increased revenues to hotels.
LateRooms provides its customers with the “inside track” on the best available hotel room offers. The website provides independent, detailed comparative information on price, star rating and location of nearly 12,000 hotels across 32 European countries and a further 1,000 hotels across the rest of the world, where rooms are sold to customers at an average discount to rack rate of around 40%. Spearheaded by Chris Allen, CEO, Tony Walsh, Development Director and Chris Morris, Finance and Commercial Director, the site now receives over one million unique visitors each month.
The rationale for the disposal was to achieve an exit for ECI Partners and to capitalise on the strength of the business in the sector and the structural reforms undertaken under ECI’s tenure.
After reviewing a range of options, Close Brothers managed a competitive auction process achieving an enterprise value of £108m. The sale extracted significant value for ECI and management and this was achieved through the implementation of a transparent and bespoke process.
Commenting on the transaction:
“Close Brothers consistently provided us with high quality strategic advice. This deal provides shareholders with an excellent return and we are delighted with Close Brothers’ role in delivering this transaction. The conduct of the bidding process was impeccable, which resulted in very strong offers for the Company.” – Chris Allen, CEO, LateRooms
“This deal provides an excellent return for ECI Partners of over 9x our original investment. We have enjoyed an excellent relationship with Close Brothers who have added significant value during this process and we look forward to working with them again.” – David Ewing, ECI
“First Choice has acquired a trophy asset within this exciting sector. It has been excellent to work with ECI Partners and the management team and to add this transaction to our substantial experience in the on-line leisure and media sectors.” – Richard Madden, Director, Close Brothers
The LateRooms team at Close Brothers was Richard Madden, Henry Wells, Charles Price and Catherine Faiers. To contact them please call Close Brothers on +44 (0)20 7655 3100.