Deal Announcement 12/19: Service Industries

The Deal

The PwC M&A team is pleased to announce the successful conclusion of Project CALL, the sale of Gesellschaft für Reisevertriebssysteme mbH (“GfR”), a 100% subsidiary of Thomas Cook Touristik GmbH and the market leader for customer management and customer care in the German travel industry, to a fund advised by DUBAG Group (“DUBAG”), a German based private equity firm focused on special situation investments. Thomas Cook GmbH and its two subsidiaries Thomas Cook Touristik GmbH and Bucher & Öger Tours GmbH had to file for insolvency on 25^th September 2019 as a result of the insolvency of the British parent company. Despite the group insolvency, GfR did not have to file for bankruptcy. PwC M&A acted as exclusive financial advisor to the vendor, insolvency administrator Ottmar Hermann of hww hermann wienberg wilhelm, on this transaction.

The share purchase agreement was signed on 20^th of December 2019.

Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook GmbH covered the entire range of tourism services for various target groups in

Germany. With Neckermann Reisen, Thomas Cook Signature and Air Marin, leading and renowned tour operator brands belonged to the company, until November 2019 ÖGER TOURS and Bucher Reisen also belonged to the brand portfolio.

Gesellschaft für Reisevertriebssysteme mbH

GfR is one of the leading providers of tourism call center services in Germany. From its locations in Bochum and Berlin, the company supports numerous renowned tourism portals with services for professional travel customer management. GfR, founded in 1997, now employs approximately 500 qualified tourism professionals who, depending on the order, process booking procedures, verify data or answer end customer inquiries in German and English. In 2018, GfR generated revenues of approximately €27m.

DUBAG

DUBAG Group, headquartered in Munich, advises and manages private equity funds and focuses on the acquisition and active development of companies in special situations. Currently DUBAG Group is investing capital from LEO II funds, which was successfully launched with institutional investors in September 2019.

hww hermann wienberg wilhelm

hww hermann wienberg wilhelm is a service provider specialised in legal advice, restructuring, insolvency and receivership. hww is represented in more than 20 cities in Germany and has its own international network. hww hermann wienberg wilhelm has been appointed by numerous insolvency courts throughout Germany in thousands of insolvency proceedings during its many years of activity.

PwC

The global PricewaterhouseCoopers network is a worldwide association of independent auditing and consulting companies which together employ more than 250,000 people in 158 countries. Our global network comprises nearly 1,550 M&A professionals all over the world, realising approx. 400 successful transactions per year. We specialise in a wide range of independent M&A services including advice on acquisitions and disposals, mergers, public takeovers, privatisations as well as structured financing.

The transaction was led by Timo Klees (Partner) and executed by Dr. Boris Hippel (Manager), Felix Lenk (Senior Associate), Hendrik Blumenstock (Senior Associate) and Florian Middelkamp (Associate).