Tui Specialist Group likely to be sold 'in one chunk'

Tui’s Specialist Group is likely to be sold as one business as opposed to being broken up, the ITT conference heard.

Corporate finance advisor Peter Hemington of BDO said that he doubted the 50 brands within the Specialist portfolio will be sold individually.

“Sources tell me that they want to sell it in one chunk; there are some great businesses in that group,” he said.

Hemington was joined on a panel discussion about the investment landscape in travel in 2016 by Thomas Cook’s UK and Ireland managing director Chris Mottershead - who denied that Thomas Cook would look at buying the Specialist Group itself.

Hemington suggested that the most attractive sector for investment is the tailor-made, older market.

“The buyer who ended up buying Scott Dunn [private equity firm Inflexion, which invested a £70 million majority stake in Scott Dunn in 2014] had missed out on Audley Travel, and that had opened their eyes to the fantastic opportunity particularly in tailor-made and the 50-plus market,” he said.

“In that market, it’s people with money, and they are spending their money, and they want a great product,” he added.

Businesses which create strong brand engagement with their customers are the most attractive to invest in, he claimed, citing major online cruise retailer Cruise.co.uk as a good example.

“They have an incredible ability to create engagement. It means you pay less for marketing; they come back, they want to trade with you. It’s that passion and engagement that generates successful businesses and generates growth,” he pointed out.

Companies will always try to inflate their value prior to sale, Hemington warned. “No business ever meets its forecasts. People always hype the numbers in a sale, and hire people like me to do it,” he said.