Bridgepoint Development Capital is to acquire Cruise.co.uk, a UK-based online travel agent serving the UK ocean cruise market*, in a transaction totalling £52m.
The seller was Risk Capital Partners. Senior debt financing for the transaction was provided by Royal Bank of Scotland.
Originally part of Carnival Corporation from which it spun out in 2007, Cruise.co.uk serves the UK ocean cruise market by leveraging a content driven website, market-leading social media presence, an online cruise review forum with over 110,000 members and 17 million web visits per annum, and a personal customer service.
Led by managing director Seamus Conlon, the company employs 170 people.
* The UK ocean cruise market is the second largest globally (after the US) whose value is forecast to grow from £2.5 billion in 2015 to £3.0 billion in 2019 and has been resilient across cycles.
The market benefits from several favourable demand and supply characteristics that include a growing customer demographic with increasing wealth, life expectancy and propensity to travel, as well as an increasing supply of cruises from cruise lines themselves.
FinSMEs
08/08/2016