DGAP-News: TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires majority stake in Dutch online travel agent Tjingo/ Joint plans to expand hotel ratings platform HolidayCheck.nl
(firmenpresse) - DGAP-News: TOMORROW FOCUS AG / Key word(s): Acquisition
TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires majority stake in Dutch online travel agent
Tjingo/ Joint plans to expand hotel ratings platform HolidayCheck.nl
30.03.2012 / 08:05
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TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires majority stake in Dutch online travel agent
Tjingo/ Joint plans to expand hotel ratings platform HolidayCheck.nl
Munich, Germany, 30 March 2012 -TOMORROW FOCUS AG's acquisition of a 55
percent stake in the Tjingo Group, which operates the Dutch online travel
agent Tjingo.nl, will take effect on 2 April 2012. Managing Directors Jan
van der Tempel and Björn Huiskes, who set up the company in 2005, hold the
remaining 45 percent stake in the company. A further agreement has been
signed covering the acquisition of the remaining shares.
The price paid for the takeover is in the single-figure millions and will
be settled partly in cash. Another component of the deal is the licence for
the Dutch hotel ratings platform HolidayCheck.nl operated by the TOMORROW
FOCUS subsidiary HolidayCheck AG. The aim is to introduce HolidayCheck
rapidly into the Dutch market under the direction of the management team at
Tjingo. To this end, there are plans to add new Dutch content and to
translate existing international content into Dutch. Given the considerable
overlap between the areas favoured by German and Dutch holidaymakers,
HolidayCheck's collection of six million ratings can be used as a good
starting point to quickly build up a strong profile in the Dutch hotel
ratings market. From 1 April 2012, HolidayCheck.nl will soon be the only
Dutch hotel ratings platform able to broker package deals.
Tjingo.nl is based in Woerden and is one of the most successful online
package tour brokers in the Netherlands. In an Internet survey conducted in
2011, it was voted the country's best online travel agent. Tjingo has a
long record of growth and profitability. The Tjingo portal will remain
independent of HolidayCheck and continue to expand.
With a population of almost 17 million and very widespread Internet usage,
the country is an attractive market for a wide range of activities in the
field of package holiday sales. According to industry estimates, in the
Netherlands around 40 to 50 percent of all package tours are booked online.
The takeover also allows TOMORROW FOCUS AG to speed up its plans for the
international expansion of HolidayCheck AG, reflecting a strategy of
developing both fast-growing and more established markets. The aim is to
harness network effects between the markets as a way of generating new
content. Further acquisitions are planned as part of this strategy.
Stefan Winners, CEO at TOMORROW FOCUS AG
'This is an extremely attractive acquisition - both for us as a hotel
ratings portal operator and for Tjingo as an online travel agent. We will
be contributing our internationally renowned brand HolidayCheck, which has
nearly six million hotel ratings alongside photographs and videos,
including some existing Dutch content. At the same time, Tjingo and its
founders, the Internet entrepreneurs Jan van der Tempel and Björn Huiskes,
will be helping us to establish ourselves quickly with their extensive
knowledge of the Dutch travel market. It puts us both in an ideal position
to achieve strong growth. We see this as a template for future expansion in
other countries.'
Björn Huiskes, founder and managing director of Tjingo
'Now that Tjingo.nl is growing profitably, we think that partnering with
TOMORROW FOCUS AG is the ideal way to establish a second brand on the Dutch
travel market, in addition to Tjingo.nl. Through HolidayCheck, TOMORROW
FOCUS AG has already demonstrated its ability to add value in many other
countries.
Thanks to the software that we developed ourselves, we are now in a
position to offer Dutch and German holidaymakers a wide range of both Dutch
and German package tour providers. The strong combination of
HolidayCheck.nl's hotel ratings platform and an independent Tjingo creates
tremendous growth potential for both portals.'
About Tjingo
Tjingo.nl, based in Woerden, Netherlands, brokers package holidays worth
around EUR 30 million, making it one of the Netherlands' most successful
online package tour brokers. The Tjingo Group has a workforce of twenty.
Over the years, Tjingo has specialised in the online marketing of its
Internet portal and in the development of high-quality software that allows
users to find the right package holiday quickly, simply and flexibly.
About HolidayCheck AG
HolidayCheck AG operates the biggest German-language holiday bookings and
feedback portal on the Internet.
The company is based in Bottighofen, just across the Swiss border from the
German town of Constance on Lake Constance. With over two hundred
employees, HolidayCheck AG currently handles package holidays worth over
EUR 600 million a year.
The idea of setting up a holiday ratings platform was first mooted in 1999.
The company was subsequently founded in 2003. Today, with over 23 million
visits every month (German Information Society for Measuring the
Distribution of Advertising Media - IVW, January 2012), HolidayCheck AG
operates the most important German-language holiday ratings portal as well
as a TÜV-certified travel agency.
In response to growing international demand, the holiday platform is now
available in ten languages.
About TOMORROW FOCUS AG
TOMORROW FOCUS AG (ISIN DE005495329) is based in Munich, Germany, and is
one of the leading exchange-listed Internet groups in Germany.
The Group has a workforce of around six hundred, and its business
operations are divided into three divisions: Transactions, Advertising and
Technologies:
The Transactions segment includes HOLIDAYCHECK, the Group's hotel rating
and travel booking portal, ELITEPARTNER, a premium online dating portal,
and JAMEDA.de, the physician recommendations portal.
The Advertising segment includes TOMORROW FOCUS Media, one of the leading
German online marketing providers, which markets a number of portals on
behalf of business partners in addition to those operated by the Group
itself, such as the news and utility journalism site FOCUS Online and the
stock market information portal FINANZEN100. The Technologies segment
includes CELLULAR GmbH, one of Germany's leading full-service agencies for
mobile platforms, and TFT GmbH, which provides technology and creative
services for web-based IT solutions.
Media&Investor Relations contact:
TOMORROW FOCUS AG
Armin Blohmann
Neumarkter Strasse 61
81673 München
Germany
phone: +49 (0)89 9250-1256
fax: +49 (0)89 9250-2403
email: a.blohmann(at)tomorrow-focus.de
www.tomorrow-focus.de
http://twitter.com/tomorrowfocus
http://facebook.de/tomorrowfocus
http://youtube.com/tomorrowfocus
Photo material and logos can be found in our media newsroom at
www.tomorrow-focus.de/newsroom
End of Corporate News
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30.03.2012 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a
company of EquityStory AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
DGAP's Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements,
Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.
Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and www.dgap.de
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Language:English
Company: TOMORROW FOCUS AG
Neumarkter Str. 61
81673 München
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)89 9250-1256
Fax: +49 (0)89 9250-2403
E-mail: a.blohmann(at)tomorrow-focus.de
Internet: www.tomorrow-focus.de
ISIN: DE0005495329
WKN: 549532
Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard);
Freiverkehr in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover,
München, Stuttgart
End of News DGAP News-Service
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