Key Travel buys Dutch agency
London-based Key Travel has bought Dutch not-for-profit agency, Raptim Humanitarian Travel.
It claims the deal has formed the world’s largest travel management company exclusively focused on the humanitarian, faith-based and academic sectors.
The merged company’s sales will be £350 million with over 500 employees in 10 countries, said an announcement.
Key Travel CEO Saad Hammad, who will lead the combined businesses, said the deal will double the group’s scale in the US and give it a ‘significant complementary’ platform in mainland Europe.
"There are many economic synergies, given the high level of sector, geographic and systems overlap,” he said.
“Above all, both organisations are people focused and values driven, with emphasis on compassion and service. A combination will enable us to serve our customers better, collaborate more effectively with our suppliers and offer more development opportunities for our people."
Eduard Kimman, chairman of the Board of Raptim, said the deal provides a ‘major growth opportunity’ for both businesses.
"We will benefit from a singular investment in technology and our scale and sales momentum gives us an opportunity to retain and energise talented and passionate employees," he said.
"Key Travel, like Raptim is all about respect, responsibility, expertise, compassion and customer service and so the cultural fit is strong."
Key Travel is headquartered in London and has its US head office in Philadelphia and its Europe head office in Brussels.
It is privately owned by shareholders, including its management team, and Elysian Capital, an independent UK private equity firm.
Raptim is headquartered in Tilburg, Holland, and was owned by the Saint Bonifacius Foundation, a fund for charity purposes.
It has operations in the US, Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Italy and Kenya together with a franchisee in Denmark and an operating partner in Australia.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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