Growth in travel sector M&A activity continues into 2023
The resurgence of M&A activity coincides with the strong post-pandemic recovery seen across the travel sector, as the long-term structural tailwinds driving the growth of both business and leisure travel have reasserted.
Our team is also seeing increasingly positive sentiment amongst strategic acquirers, an encouraging sign given the particularly one-sided nature of M&A activity in the sector throughout the 2010s, when private equity transactions represented the vast majority of deal flow.
M&A activity
Clearwater International’s Consumer team have completed their second travel sector transaction of 2023, advising Primary Capital on their investment in Diversity Travel, a leading global TMC serving the not-for-profit sector.
The deal follows the June completion of Direct Ferries, where Clearwater advised ICG on their investment in the world’s leading aggregator of ferry tickets.
These deals represent the latest in a long line of transactions that members of Clearwater’s experienced Consumer team have advised on in recent years, including advising Flight Centre on its acquisition of Scott Dunn, advising twice on the sale of Travel Chapter (to ECI Partners in 2018 and subsequently to ICG in 2022), advising Travelopia on multiple transactions and advising Vitruvian on the acquisition of Travel Counsellors.
The team also have additional experience in corporate travel, advising on transactions with Reed & Mackay, Key Travel and Hillgate Travel.
