Skift Take
Buying Germany’s Comtravo last month also meant taking on that company’s own ongoing acquisitions, consisting of plans to buy Sweden’s Resia. That deal’s now gone through, and TripActions acquires a faster way to Scandinavia.
Matthew Parsons
When TripActions bought Microsoft-backed business travel bureau Comtravo for a reported $60 million last month, it acquired several of its ongoing acquisitions. The very first to come to light is Swedish business travel agency Resia.
The Gothenburg-based company remained in the procedure of being sold to Comtravo as part of its “inorganic development technique”– a quality TripActions discovered attractive, according to an internal file seen by Skift.
“When TripActions closed the acquisition of Comtravo, numerous other acquisitions that Comtravo had in flight were still continuous,” a personnel memo stated. “The Resia acquisition is one of those offers. Given Comtravo’s inorganic development method, it’s safe to assume that there will be more.”
Comtravo raised $23.4 million in endeavor investment in November 2019, right before the pandemic hit.
Transaction terms of the offer were not divulged. “As a personal company, the TripActions Group does not disclose the regards to investments,” said a spokesperson.
According to another internal TripActions memo, Reisa has a travel budget plan under management of $140 million.
TripActions stated the purchase “offers perfect positioning for additional growth across the Nordics.” Purchasing Resia gives it 1,300 new clients, and a foothold in the Nordics as it continues its drive across Europe. TripActions now has workplaces in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Portugal. “Bringing Resia into the group fast-tracks TripActions’ position in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and assists guarantee its long-lasting international growth strategies,” said a TripActions spokesperson.
All Resia staff will stay onboard and continue to serve clients in the area. However, it decreased to reveal how many employees were included. Resia’s parent business Resia Travel Group AB went through a court-approved reorganization in May 2020, appointing legal firm Dnovo as administrator. It offloaded its vacation business, Bengt-Martins, to Magic Carpet Group in July 2021.
“The situation with Covid-19 has actually indicated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided on a prolonged travel restriction, nations have actually closed their borders and serious constraints on events have been enforced. For us, this has indicated non-existent sales and led to high refund claims due to cancelled trips and bookings. This has actually required the decision to file for reorganisation to avoid insolvency,” the company said in a statement.
Resia Travel Group then had an overall of 300 workers, according to a regional media report, pricing quote documents filed in the District Court in Gothenburg as part of its corporate reorganization application.
TripActions declined to discuss whether it was taking on debts of the company.
But the Silicon Valley start-up stated it now has 8,800 customers, and that travel reservations from the European Union were averaging 30 percent week-on-week growth.
The internal memo also revealed TripActions is keeping a close eye on rival TravelPerk, which bought UK travel management company Click Travel in July last year. “TripActions was already an exceptional, more detailed, and global option than TravelPerk, and this acquisition now underscores our local dominance in ALL of Europe,” the memo stated, under the headline: “How will this acquisition assist me sell against TravelPerk?”
Meanwhile, 13 organization travel associations from nations across Europe, including the Association Francaise du Travel Management and Germany’s VDR, which today is co-hosting Global Service Travel Association’s European conference in Berlin, have formed a new body called the European Network of Organization Travel Associations. The non-profit association will be headquartered in Brussels.
“Up to now the purchasers of business travel– companies, public services, non-governmental organizations– did not have a unified network to make their demands heard on a European level. BT4Europe will develop a bridge in between its member associations and political choice makers in Europe,” the association stated. “On top of its program are the recovery of organization travel from Covid-19 pandemic, altering service travel to make it more sustainable and promoting digital processes within business travel.
The venture comes as the European arm of the Global Company Travel Association readies to lobby the European Commission over climate modification legislation.