Capita Group PLC
09 November 2005
9 November 2005
CAPITA ACQUIRES LONSDALE TRAVEL
The Capita Group Plc ('Capita') announces that it has acquired the entire share
capital of Lonsdale Travel Limited ('Lonsdale'), one of the UK's leading
independent travel management companies. Capita will pay £10.25 million on
completion, to be satisfied by the issue of 64,185 new ordinary shares in Capita
and £10 million in cash. A further £250,000, payable in cash, will be paid over
the next four years, subject to the business achieving certain performance
targets.
Lonsdale is ranked number 11 in the Business Travel Company market and provides
a wide range of travel administration services to organisations across the
public and private sectors. Lonsdale is Capita's preferred supplier of travel
services and Capita currently represents approximately 16% of Lonsdale's
business. Lonsdale's audited accounts for the year ended 30 November 2004,
recorded operating profit of £2.0 million on net fee income of £7.3 million. As
at 30 November 2004 Lonsdale had audited net assets of £1.7 million.
Some 220 employees, based primarily in Derby, will transfer to Capita and the
founder and Chairman of Lonsdale, Stuart Webb, is retiring from the business as
part of the transaction.
Rod Aldridge, Executive Chairman of The Capita Group Plc, said, 'This
acquisition extends and complements our existing portfolio of services which are
focussed on transforming the quality and efficiency of our clients' back office
and customer facing services. With many public and private sector organisations
increasingly outsourcing non-core administration operations, we are constantly
expanding our service offering to enable us to provide broader support to our
clients.
Just as we targeted and built up over the past 20 months a market leading
position in supplying outsourced occupational health services, we have now
identified travel administration as an area of major spend where we can add
value to our clients by offering effective outsourced services. Organisations
spent £14.7bn* on business travel in the UK in 2004 and we estimate that some
£3bn is spent across the public sector alone. The administration costs of this
activity are very significant and ripe for re-engineering.
'The acquisition will open significant cross-selling opportunities for both
companies and bring clear benefits to existing customers. We welcome all the
employees of Lonsdale Travel to Capita and look forward to working with them and
continuing to grow the business.'
- Ends -
* Business Travel Market, Keynote January 2005
For further information please contact:
The Capita Group Plc +44 (0)20 7799 1525
Rod Aldridge, Executive Chairman
Paul Pindar, Chief Executive
Shona Nichols, Corporate Communications Director
Press Office +44 (0)870 2400 488
Notes to Editors:
The Capita Group Plc is the UK's leading provider of integrated professional
support service solutions. The Group's service capabilities encompass customer
services, financial services, human resource services, software services,
systems and strategic support and property services delivered to both public
sector and private organisations. With over 23,000 employees at more than 230
offices across the UK and Ireland, Capita is quoted on the London Stock Exchange
(CPI.L), and is a constituent of the FTSE100 with revenues for 2004 of £1,285
million.
Capita has secured a number of awards including Best BPO Services Provider 2004.
Further information on The Capita Group Plc can be found at: www.capita.co.uk
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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