06 March 2011

Travelport Offloads GTA to Kuoni for $720 Million

Travelport has managed to offload one of the albatrosses around its neck with the sale of GTA to Kuoni.

GTA has been a step child in the Travelport organization since the creation of Travelport out of the Ashes of the Cendant empire. The synergies long hoped for never quite materialized.

With Amadeus shedding non-core businesses and now down to the twin pillars of Airline IT and GDS, Travelport finds itself as a one trick pony. Well not quite if you include the bizarre purchase of SPRICE.

GTA has always been a somewhat uncomfortable member of the family. Now it is going to a new home with perhaps an opportunity for Kuoni to restore some lustre to the once high flying traditional brand.

In my view don't look to Sabre to spin out Synxis any time soon. The big 4 GDS companies are still holding onto their cash cow businesses. This divestiture allows the core of the business to be judged on its merits - good or bad of the purity of the GDS model. Then of course there is still that small matter of their 48% shareholding in Orbitz Worldwide.

Cheers

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