Kuoni Travel to tap market

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JULY 3. Kuoni Travel (India) (KTIL), the largest travel and tour company in India, has announced that it will be coming out with an initial public offering (IPO). KTIL is an 100 per cent owned by the Zurich-based Kuoni Travel Holding and has received the board's approval to divest 25 per cent of its equity.

``We hope to price the shares at a premium of Rs. 490, fetching us a receipt of Rs. 150 crores,'' said Mr. Ranjit Malkani, Chairman & Managing Director, KTIL, while addressing a press conference here today. For the year 2000-01, KTIL registered a profit before tax of Rs. 34 crores on a turnover of Rs. 600 crores. Forex earnings for the fiscal was worth Rs. 179 crores.

Mr. Malkani said the IPO would serve the dual purposes of introducing stock options and also creating a currency for acquisition.

KTIL has shelled out Rs. 200 crores in previous acquisitions, including travel majors SOTC (Kuoni's route to an Indian presence) and SITA World Travel. KTIL today has announced the acquisition of the business and goodwill of Tour Club Private Ltd., a leading Indian destination manager, which is focused on providing incoming services to tourists coming from West Asia and Africa. The Rs. 18 crore Tour Club is a 13 year old company with branches in Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai. Following the acquisition, the business of Tour Club will be organised as a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) of the Incoming division of KTIL. The price to be paid for the acquisition will depend upon the profits generated by the Kuoni's Tour Club SBU over the next 3-5 years.

The turnover of Kuoni India for the year 2000-01 is projected at Rs. 577 crores and the profit before tax is expected to be Rs. 34 crores. KTIL's existing divisions include SOTC which is the outbound tour operator with 116 sales points in India, SITA, the largest player for incentive and corporate travel and for inbound money transfer and SITA inbound which is into destination management.

The managing director of Tour Club, Mr. Mahesh Shirodkar will join Kuoni's Inbound division as senior vice president in charge of Kuoni's Tour Club.

SITA Inbound is divided into SITA Incoming, Kuoni Incoming (Trails) which handles incoming tourists and eHolidays through SITAIndia.com. Tour Club is currently positioned as the fourth SBU in KTIL's in-bound portfolio. Tour Club has profits of roughly Rs. 1 crore and this is projected to touch Rs. 3 crore in the future.

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Section  : Business
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