Wirtualna Polska Holding, which provides online travel and tourism services in Poland, is acquiring Hungarian online travel agency Szallas Group from Portfolion Capital Partners.
The deal is valued at €72 million, plus the company’s net cash, which was estimated around €10 million at the transaction closing dating, making the total value of the acquisition €82 million.
Established in 2007, Szallas Group operates the largest domestic travel portals in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), enabling travelers to book accommodations in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland and Croatia.
In addition to accommodation booking services, Szallas Group also operates websites that offer spa packages, hotel discount coupons, tours and activities and B2B services.
During the 12 months ended June 2022, the company says it had more than one million bookings with €200 million total transaction value made through the group’s websites. For the period, Szallas Group generated EBITDA of €6.6 million.
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“The acquisition of Szallas Group is our first foreign investment and a groundbreaking moment in the history of Wirtualna Polska Holding. Following the merger with our own Nocowanie.pl, the largest group will be created of local companies operating on the domestic accommodation markets of Central and Eastern Europe, offering over 100,000 accommodation options,” says Jacek Świderski, CEO of Wirtualna Polska Holding.
“We are extremely impressed with the skills of [Szallas Group CEO József Szigetvári] and his team, as they have demonstrated how to run a successful business in competition against global platforms on the local market. We also believe in the potential behind the travel industry as a whole. This has been confirmed by the financial performance of Nocowanie.pl, which posted record-breaking revenues in its history in Q2 2022.”
Adds Szigetvári: “We’ll go on the CEE growth track we’ve established with PortfoLion with further acquisitions and organic growth in the region. Our management firmly believes that becoming a member of such a large and rapidly growing group as Wirtualna Polska Holding opens up new opportunities for our dedicated team of 350, especially in case of our Polish portfolio.”
