Arrowpoint Advisory advises on the sale of Fleetway Travel to Synova and Tenzing

Arrowpoint Advisory's Consumer, Retail and Leisure sector team has advised the shareholders of Fleetway Travel on its sale to Synova Capital and Tenzing PE. Synova and Tenzing have invested alongside the existing senior management team, James Clarke and Ben Braude. Ian Coghlan (previously CEO of both Abercrombie & Kent and SAGA Travel) joins the Business as Executive Chairman.

Fleetway is one of the UK's leading online providers of exclusive luxury travel deals. The Business has developed a unique and highly disruptive model providing hotels and airlines with the strategic capabilities to manage supply and enhance yield throughout seasonal periods, whilst delivering exceptional value for money and service to its customers. The Business trades across the Fleetway, Luxury Holiday Collection and Exclusive Luxury Breaks brands. Key online partners include Travelzoo and Secret Escapes.

Alex Bowden, Partner at Synova, said: “We believe the technology-led offering provides significant growth opportunities as a sophisticated distribution platform for travel operators; our plan will focus on delivering further UK penetration as well as rolling the product offering out internationally.”

Ian Coghlan, Executive Chairman of Fleetway and Tenzing Partner, commented: “I am delighted to be joining Fleetway as Executive Chairman. Fleetway has carved itself a unique position in the travel deals market and delivers amazing value and excellent customer service. Their innovative use of technology and superb relationships with their suppliers provide a solid platform from which to build the business. We are very excited about the future developments and I look forward to helping the management team and Synova to achieve their ambitious goals.”

James Lever, Managing Director at Arrowpoint Advisory, added: “We received significant interest in the business from the private equity community, who were attracted by its niche strategic model and distribution platform. We believe that the combination of the Fleetway management team and Ian Coghlan is a powerful one and that, with the support of Synova and Tenzing, the business can continue to accelerate its strong current growth trajectory.”

This is the sixth Travel sector deal completed by our Consumer sector team in the last 12 months: LDC's investment in iglu.com, the Scott Dunn buy-out backed by Inflexion, Destinology's sale to Saga Plc, JacTravel's acquisition of TotalStay Group and their buy-out backed by Vitruvian Partners.

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