Skift Take
Big names drove much of the top 10 travel mergers of the year. However among the biggest offers, aircraft lessors, rail producers and an online travel bureau used the pandemic to scoop up infrastructure and technology to support their positions.
Dennis Schaal
Pandemic opportunities sustained much of the mergers-and-acquisitions activity in travel this year, as purchasers pounced on beneficial appraisals and sectors set for strong recoveries.
Amongst the leading 10 deals were 3 that involved infrastructure or services for airplanes and trains, and the dealmakers were business that your typical traveler never ever heard of.
The most significant such deal saw Dublin-based AerCap, currently the biggest aircraft lessor worldwide, acquiring a U.S.-based rival, GE Capital Aviation Providers, for $30.7 billion in November. That deal, which saw GE getting $23 million in cash and a 46 percent stake in the merged companies in a bet on an aviation healing, was approximately five times larger than the second acquisition of the year.
Because second-biggest acquisition, France-headquartered Alstom bought UK-based Bombardier Transportation, a rail automobile producer, in a $6.2 billion (euro 5.5 billion) offer that closed in January 2021.
lnterestingly, both sellers General Electric in the AerCap offer, and Bombardier, then-parent of Bombardier Transportation, in the transaction with Alstom, viewed the transactions as allowing them to go back to their core companies, an energy devices and providers for GE, and company jets for Bombardier.
The 3rd infrastructure-services deal was the 10th most significant travel-related acquisition with Siemens Movement getting rail software application maker Squills for $650 million.
See the chart below to see the leading 10 deals.
Hotels and property were in play as Blackstone and Starwood Capital carried out the third largest travel-related acquisition of the year and took control of Extended Stay America for $6 billion. One might define Extended Stay America as a merger and acquisition football– When the deal closed in June, it was the 3rd time Blackstone has been owner of Extended Stay America.
In another significant hotel deal, the 5th largest travel acquisition of the year, Hyatt bought Apple Leisure Group for $2.7 billion in November, extending Chicago-based Hyatt’s reach even more into Europe and the complete sector.
The 4th largest offer of the year had Certares, Knighthead and Apollo winning an auction to lead U.S.-based Hertz out of personal bankruptcy in an approximately $4.7 billion deal.
The sixth-largest travel acquistion revealed or closed in 2021 was the only Asia entry with Tata Group planning to take Air India private for $2.4 billion.
It wasn’t a particularly active mergers and acquisitions year for online travel bureau, but one, Reservation Holdings, revealed late in the year 2 billion-dollar-plus acquisitions, Swedish flight-tech supplier Etraveli Group for $1.8 billion (seventh-largest deal) and hotel wholesaler and distributor Getaroom for $1.2 billion (eighth biggest).
Expedia Group was a seller. The online travel bureau offered its once-rising star Egencia, the corporate travel bureau, to American Express Global Service Travel for a 14 percent stake on the planet’s largest travel management business, worth about $750 million, and a long-term hotel circulation offer. That was the ninth-largest travel acquisition of the year.
We didn’t consider special-purpose acquisition company deals in our leading 10 because they are deals performed by shell business without any operations. If we had actually included them, then Altimeter Capital Growth 1’s merger with Singapore’s Grab, the ride sharing and food shipment superapp, would have been in the mix in a $4 billion deal.
Travel’s 10 Greatest Merger and Acquisition Deals of 2021
| Purchaser | Gotten Company | Sector | Status | Rate | Origin Nations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. AerCap | GE Capital Air Travel Services | Aviation | Closed | $30.7 B | Ireland, U.S. |
| 2. Alstom | Bombardier Transporation | Rail | Closed | $6.2 B | France, UK |
| 3. Blackstone/Starwood Capital | Extended Stay America | Hotel | Closed | $6 B | U.S. |
| 4. Certares/Knighhead/Apollo | Hertz | Vehicle Rental | Closed | $4.7 B | U.S. |
| 5. Hyatt | Apple Leisure Group | Hotel | Closed | $2.7 B | U.S. |
| 6. Tata Group | Air India | Aviation | Pending | $2.4 B | India |
| 7. Booking Holdings | Etraveli Group | Online Travel | Pending | $1.8 B | U.S./ Sweden |
| 8. Reservation Holdings | Getaroom | Online Travel | Pending | $1.2 B | U.S. |
| 9. Amex GBT | Egencia | Corporate Travel | Closed | $650 M | U.S. |
| 10. Siemens Mobility | Squills | Rail | Pending | $650 M | Germany/Netherlands |
Source: Skift, financial filings