Leading Indian online travel company acquires an effective majority equity interest in ITC Group, enabling it to provide to provide hotel reservations, excursion tours and other travel related services for inbound and outbound travellers in Thailand and the South East Asia region.
NEW DELHI and NEW YORK – MakeMyTrip Limited, India’s leading online travel company and the parent company of MakeMyTrip (India) Private Limited and MakeMyTrip.com Inc. announced that it acquired an effective majority equity interest in a group of companies known as the “ITC Group”. The ITC Group comprises of International Tour Center Co. Ltd., ITC Bangkok Co. Ltd. and ITC South Co. Ltd. Pursuant to the transaction documents signed with the ITC Group and its existing shareholders, MakeMyTrip paid USD 2.2 million to the existing shareholders for the sale of their shares in the ITC Group and paid USD 1 million for subscription of new shares in the ITC Group.
MakeMyTrip will also acquire the remaining shares of the ITC Group from the existing shareholders in cash, payable in four tranches, over an earn-out period ending December 2016, at such price based on valuation linked to the future profitability of the ITC Group.
ITC Group is a well-established hotel aggregator and tour operator for Thailand. The ITC Group has relationships with a number of hotels and other local vendors in Thailand to provide hotel reservations, excursion tours and other travel related services for inbound and outbound travellers in Thailand and the South East Asia region. The acquisition will help MakeMyTrip further expand its presence in Thailand, a key market for its outbound holidays business, by establishing more direct hotel relationships in the country.
Thailand is an important outbound travel destination from India and has accounted for approximately one million Indian visitors this year. Airlines in India, including low cost carriers, are aligning their fleet for direct flights from various cities in India to Thailand. MakeMyTrip believes that these developments are positioning travel and tourism to Thailand for strong growth by making travel to the country easily accessible and affordable to the middle class in India.
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