FCM Travel Solutions, the Indian arm of the Australia–headquartered Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), has announced an agreement to acquire the business interests of South India’s travel company, the INR 750-crore Travel Tours Group (TTG), in a cash and stock deal. Led by Shravan Gupta, TTG is a four-decade-old company offering travel services including leisure, corporate travel, MICE, visa, inbound, wholesale and foreign exchange.
Commenting on the acquisition, Rakshit Desai, managing director, FCM Travel Solutions, said, “We are thrilled to welcome TTG into the Flight Centre family. This partnership propels us into an INR 3,000 crore enterprise and one of the top three players in all the core travel segments we operate in. India is poised to become one of the world’s major travel markets and this partnership will enable us to achieve our goal of being the largest customer focused travel player in the country.”
Gupta, who joins the board of FCM and assumes leadership of the leisure business, stated, “We are confident that our combined strength will help achieve our growth plans at a much faster pace. I am looking forward to leading the leisure business, sharing insights and product knowledge, as well as gaining from the global best practices of the Flight Centre group.”
The combined strength will give FCM India a national distribution network and strong leadership across businesses and functions. Upon successful acquisition, FCM India will employ over 1,600 travel professionals across 44 locations in 16 cities. The partnership will bring on-board TTG’s brands, that include Travel Tours, Travel Air, Travel Air representations, Splendour Holidays, Go Avenues and mustseeindia. The business is expected to start realising strategic benefits within a 12-month period.
Based on FY16 results for Flight Centre, the combined India business would have surpassed South Africa to become Flight Centre’s sixth largest country by sales behind Australia, the USA, the UK, Canada and New Zealand.
