First Choice Acquires Laterooms
DECEMBER 29, 2006. First Choice is acquiring hotel booking site laterooms.com for lb120 million, in a bid to boost its presence in Europe.
The hotel booking site, which receives more than a million visitors a month, has 13,000 properties across the UK and Europe. Its turnover last year was lb7.1m with profits of lb3.4m. This year, it expects turnover to top lb11m.
Peter Long, First Choice's chief executive, said: "Operating in a high-growth sector, we see considerable opportunity to increase Laterooms' future profitability even further. "It has a distinct business model serving a niche market segment at low cost. Laterooms is a significant addition to our portfolio and enables us to offer even better late availability deals to our customers."
First Choice said the deal would enable LateRooms to build on its strong position in the UK and its growing presence in Spain, France, Italy and beyond. Laterooms, which has been profitable since its first year, is planning to expand into the mini-breaks market.
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