Helloworld to acquire AOT Group?

Helloworld has this morning responded to media speculations that it is in the midst of acquiring AOT Group.

According to reports from the Australian Financial Review, there are whispers within market circles that the Helloworld board, led by former Qantas general counsel chief Brett Jonson, has had serious discussions about a potential deal.

Helloworld has confirmed that they are in discussions with AOT Group regarding a potential acquisition of AOT by Helloworld.

“The evaluation of the potential acquisition is still in progress. No transaction has been agreed or approved by the Helloworld Board and there is no certainty that the current discussions will lead to any transactions,” Helloworld said in a statement.

But AOT certainly has a close relationship with Helloworld, as AFR points out, and aside from AOT’s chief exec Andrew Burnes’ shareholding, AOT bought Helloworld’s inbound tour unit ATS Pacific in August 2013.

The two companies continue to do business together and a potential merger would allow AOT to sell its travel services through Helloworld’s distribution network of 700-odd travel agencies.

AFR also made note that this could be a reason for why a replacement for outgoing CEO Elizabeth Gaines has not yet been announced, despite the board saying it is “well advanced” in finding a new CEO.

Helloworld is understood to have retained Fort Street Advisers’ Ben Keeble (a former CVC and UBS executive) for advice, which has helped stoke the speculation.

Helloworld also needs to improve its paper-thin margins, according to AFR, with its FY15 underperforming compared to fellow listed agent Flight Centre, who returned 65% for shareholders over the past five years, while Helloworld lost about the same for investors.

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Latest comments

What goes around .... says:
September 10, 2015 at 6:53 pm
More likely scenario is that it’s actually AOT acquiring Helloworld. Sad, sad state of affairs at HLO, and has been since the day Rob Gurney managed to squeeze his inflated ego into the CEO’s office. LOTS of senior management there will most definitely be shown the door. Which just confirms that ‘What goes around … ‘
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An about to be BIG ex agent says:
September 2, 2015 at 6:32 pm
These guys at Helloworld are just incompetent, they just sold their Inbound business to AOT at a massive loss and now they want to buy it back again. Are these Board members simply stupid, or corrupt? Qantas has a lot to answer for this total misery, Johnston their Chairpuppet is now in the act.
Heard a few senior staff are looking at the door….total misery.
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