Acquisition

Online Travel Corporation PLC 1 November 2001 For Immediate Release Thursday, 1 November 2001 ONLINE TRAVEL CORPORATION ACQUIRES IF YOU TRAVEL Online Travel Corporation plc, ('OTC') the travel technology and distribution group has, on 31 October 2001, acquired the business and assets of If You Travel Limited ('IYT'), for an initial consideration of £213,703 which is to be satisfied by the issue to the vendors of 1,257,080 ordinary shares at 17 pence per share. This acquisition includes the trade of the ski, golf, dive and adventure sites including one of Europe's largest specialist ski sites ifyouski.com, formerly Complete-Skier. In the year to 30 September 2001 the business generated gross sales of £1.7 million and a gross profit margin of £355,000. IYT operates specialist ski and golf sites for many leading portals, including aol.co.uk, excite.co.uk, yahoo.co.uk and lastminute.com. The acquisition also includes all the fixed assets, proprietary technology and content, plus cash assets of £236,700, before reorganisation provisions estimated to be £141,400. OTC intend to offer these specialist ski, golf, dive and adventure travel services to some of the eighty plus client sites they currently operate and integrate OTC technology and products on IYT sites. Commenting on the acquisition, Mark Jones, CEO of OTC, said: 'This acquisition adds to our growing status as the leading e-travel group in the UK. It satisfies our stringent acquisition criteria by adding good quality content, technology and expertise in specialist areas, and we expect this division to make a positive contribution to our central overhead in the first quarter next year. This will bring new customers and revenues and we already have plans in place to reduce costs by eliminating the considerable cost duplication. Adding specialist product is important to our objective of building the most comprehensive and diverse online travel portfolio in Europe.' The Initial consideration will be payable via the issue of 1,257,080 (1.5%) ordinary shares in OTC at 17 pence per share on completion. Deferred consideration of up to 538,752 ordinary shares at 17 pence per share will be due in May 2002, subject to IYT achieving certain revenue and gross profit goals in the forthcoming ski season, in addition to some deferred cash consideration based on a percentage of net travel profits over the next three years. Application for the admission of the 1,257,080 Initial consideration ordinary shares to trading on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange ('AIM') will be made and dealings are expected to commence on Wednesday 7 November 2001. OTC October sales almost double on same month last year OTC also announced that in spite of the events of 11 September, gross sales in October were more than 90% higher than the level of sales achieved in the same month last year, with almost treble the number of transactions completed. Jones commented 'We were able to respond quickly to the change in consumer demand patterns by focusing on European short breaks and lower risk destinations. This shift in demand to short-breaks, coupled with the large discounts on offer, resulted in a lower sales value per transaction, so we're pleased that our gross sales revenue was still some 90% more than that in October last year.' For further information contact: Online Travel Corporation Plc Mark Jones, CEO Tel: 00 44 (0) 208 255 2247 Noble & Company Limited Chris Barker Tel: 00 44 (0) 207 367 5600 About Online Travel Corporation, plc OTC is a travel technology and distribution business, providing a comprehensive range of technological solutions, travel products and ancillary travel services to ISP's, Media and Affinity Groups and Corporate Organisations. It provides bespoke technology solutions linked to its wide product range to produce a one-stop travel service through the Internet, supported by telephone call centres for leisure and corporate clients to fulfil their travel needs. OTC provides a comprehensive range of travel products and ancillary travel services is both a travel agent and tour operator. OTC strategy focuses on low-cost routes to market with lower customer acquisition costs compared to that of a mass-market consumer brand and is focused on selected business areas. OTC has launched some 80 travel sites with Strategic Partners in the last 18 months and via these partner sites has access to a potential customer base to over 16 million online users. OTC is quoted on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. Additional information is available at www.onlinetravelcorporation.com
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