Triton (OTCBB:TTDS), after months of negotiations and due diligence, is completing its acquisition of ZTS, a diversified German-based travel services company that for over twenty years has formed relationships with some of Europe's most respected travel providers and has built a branded and growing customer base. The purchase consists almost entirely of long-term debt, it is seller-financed, non-recourse to Triton and results in minimal dilution to Triton's shareholders. An initial cash progress payment was made in September and the second one, to complete the acquisition, is expected to be made within the next several days.
The ZTS deal is the beginning of Triton's targeted and aggressive push to acquire established companies, migrate them to the Triton technology platform and bring their customer relationships, growth potential and revenues to Triton. Triton's acquisition strategy will focus on value-added opportunities with prospects for significant improvement in gross margins, such as ZTS, and where sellers carry back most of the acquisition price with long term debt issued on a non-recourse basis, this strategy of acquiring revenues with non-recourse debt will result in less potential dilution to shareholders.
ZTS operates in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, and Eastern Europe with annual sales revenue exceeding $147 million (USD) and gross revenues estimated to reach $4 million (USD) and with estimated net profit of $700,000 in 2008.
Triton and its next generation booking tool, ReservationExpert(TM) will process all travel requests initially handled by ZTS including all booking, ticketing and exchanges. 'This acquisition provides us with a set of deals for European travel that would have taken months to individually negotiate, a trusted and loyal customer base and little to no duplication of corporate services. It is, in no uncertain terms, a wonderful opportunity for us,' said Gregory Lykiardopoulos, Chairman and CEO for Triton.
Triton now has immediate access to the three remaining major Global Distribution Systems or GDS's - Worldspan, Amadeus and Sabre (Triton already has complete access to Galileo). Each GDS has unique content for a part of the world's travel and now Triton will be able to offer to any user of ReservationExpert, travel inventory from the four corners of the globe.
Triton inherits all of ZTS' agreements with travel providers. This includes TUI AG, one of the world's largest tourist firms owning travel agencies, hotels, airlines and cruise ships, Deutsche Bundesbahn, one of Europe's largest rail lines, Steigenberger Hotels, a major European resort chain, Best Western Europe, Thomas Cook Travel, 75 major tour operators and much, much more.
Added advantages of this deal for Triton include IATA membership, a CRM tool, cash management and travel fulfillment, a customer call center and marketing and sales professionals.
ZTS was founded 24 years ago and has become one of Europe's leading travel distributors with its web-based reservation system, a suite of additional travel tools, fulfillment, and customer support and database management.
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