Jones Lang LaSalle
SKY'S THE LIMIT
By ZACHERY KOUWE
May 17, 2006 -- EXCLUSIVE
Flush buyout giants yesterday turned their attention to Cendant Corp.'s travel business, which includes popular Web sites Orbitz and CheapTickets.com, jumping into an auction that could end with a $4.5 billion deal, sources told The Post.
The firms that bid, including Bain Capital, Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management, often snap up undervalued divisions of large companies, restructure them and sell them back to the public.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., run by buyout king Henry Kravis, has also shown interest in Cendant but it's unclear if it submitted a bid yesterday.
Ironically left out of first-round bidding was the Blackstone Group, which actually put Cendant's travel business in play earlier this year by submitting an unsolicited offer to buy the division, sources said.
Blackstone's reluctance to enter the auction may be a sign that it wants to avoid a heated bidding war, said one source.
The firms are likely to join together for their final offer or bring in other buyout shops to help fund the deal, sources said.
Last year, Cendant, which owns hotel chains Days Inn and Avis Rent-A-Car, said it would split into four separate publicly traded companies. But after receiving interest from private-equity firms, it decided to put the travel unit up for sale.
The division, which was recently renamed Travelport, consists of Orbitz, CheapTickets, online travel agent network Galileo, and travel agency Gullivers Travel Associates.
The unit faltered last year when bookings at British travel site Ebookers plc, which the company acquired for $330 million in late 2004, fell 40 percent below expectations.
Running the auction are investment banks Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and Evercore Partners.
New York-based Cendant still plans to spin off Realogy Corp., its real estate unit, and Wyndham Worldwide, its hotels unit and keep Avis.
Expedia Inc., the largest U.S. online travel agency that was spun off from Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp a year ago, reported first-quarter profit fell 51 percent partly because of market share losses to Orbitz and other competitors such as Travelocity and Priceline.
Cendant could make a quick profit on a sale: it bought Orbitz from five airlines in 2004 for only $1.2 billion.
zachery.kouwe@nypost.com
SKY'S THE LIMIT
By ZACHERY KOUWE
May 17, 2006 -- EXCLUSIVE
Flush buyout giants yesterday turned their attention to Cendant Corp.'s travel business, which includes popular Web sites Orbitz and CheapTickets.com, jumping into an auction that could end with a $4.5 billion deal, sources told The Post.
The firms that bid, including Bain Capital, Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management, often snap up undervalued divisions of large companies, restructure them and sell them back to the public.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., run by buyout king Henry Kravis, has also shown interest in Cendant but it's unclear if it submitted a bid yesterday.
Ironically left out of first-round bidding was the Blackstone Group, which actually put Cendant's travel business in play earlier this year by submitting an unsolicited offer to buy the division, sources said.
Blackstone's reluctance to enter the auction may be a sign that it wants to avoid a heated bidding war, said one source.
The firms are likely to join together for their final offer or bring in other buyout shops to help fund the deal, sources said.
Last year, Cendant, which owns hotel chains Days Inn and Avis Rent-A-Car, said it would split into four separate publicly traded companies. But after receiving interest from private-equity firms, it decided to put the travel unit up for sale.
The division, which was recently renamed Travelport, consists of Orbitz, CheapTickets, online travel agent network Galileo, and travel agency Gullivers Travel Associates.
The unit faltered last year when bookings at British travel site Ebookers plc, which the company acquired for $330 million in late 2004, fell 40 percent below expectations.
Running the auction are investment banks Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and Evercore Partners.
New York-based Cendant still plans to spin off Realogy Corp., its real estate unit, and Wyndham Worldwide, its hotels unit and keep Avis.
Expedia Inc., the largest U.S. online travel agency that was spun off from Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp a year ago, reported first-quarter profit fell 51 percent partly because of market share losses to Orbitz and other competitors such as Travelocity and Priceline.
Cendant could make a quick profit on a sale: it bought Orbitz from five airlines in 2004 for only $1.2 billion.
zachery.kouwe@nypost.com
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 3:01 PM
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