NEWS Serial-acquirer lastminute.com has detailed the terms of its latest purchase - a £55m bid for the Online Travel Corporation (OTC).
The all-shares deal would see lastminute.com further cement its position as the UK's largest independent online travel company, following a string of recent acquisitions.
The deal further strengthens the company's core travel business and represents a slight shift in focus towards the business traveller, through OTC's travelstore.com property.
However, the focus is still primarily on leisure travel. David Howell, CFO of lastminute.com, told silicon.com that 68 per cent of OTC business is leisure travel - though the balance still represents a far greater proportion of business travel than lastminute.com currently enjoys.
As part of the deal, lastminute.com will take a £5m one-off hit this quarter. The acquisition will also mean "£3m of cost rationalisation" according to Howell, which inevitably means some jobs will be lost. Howells said lastminute.com has no reason to take on OTC's non-executive board members and similarly has no need for two separate call-centre operations.
The acquisition makes good on suggestions last month by lastminute.com chairman Allan Leighton that the company's recent spree was far from over. "The acquisition pipeline remains strong and we anticipate further activity during the coming months," he said on 12 February.
And Howell says the company is still not done.
"The acquisition pipeline is still strong and you can expect to see some more activity over the next quarter," he said.
While Howell wouldn't be pressed on the identity of potential targets, he admitted the company is looking to expand outside its core travel business, reflecting the move in recent times towards lifestyle products and packages - such as dining, gifts, shopping, sport and theatre tickets.
But while the travel sector is clearly ripe for consolidation, Howells isn't confident there are any suitable targets in the lifestyle sector.
"We are definitely looking at lifestyle as an area we want to expand in, but the problem is finding something," he said.
