CORPORATE TRAVEL STAMPS TEXAS

CORPORATE Travel Management (ASX: CTD) is spreading its wings once again, announcing the acquisition of Avia International Travel.

The 17-year-old Texan travel company aligns with CTD’s aim to expand its North American presence, which is tipped to amass a total transaction value of USD$500m for financial year 2015, and also bolster its Oil & Gas and Marine segments owing to Avia’s specialist resources, technology and fares for this market.

The base consideration of the acquisition is USD$4.125m in a mixture of cash and CTD shares.

Managing director Jamie Pherous (pictured) says the organisational cultures of the companies also align, noting the drawcard of Avia’s high staff and client retention. 

“Avia possesses all of the qualities that we look for, having a great service reputation, a dedicated team and great ‘hands on’ management,” says Pherous.

“The combination with our successful and well established offices throughout the USA will allow us to better leverage our combined buying power, client facing solutions, and support expertise moving forward.”

CTM now operates out of 17 cities across 7 states in North America, with a particularly strong hold in the Texan and Alaskan markets due to previous acquisitions.

The president of Avia, Antonella Ballatori, has elected to take ownership in CTM along with Avia’s chief operating officer Matt Forestieri.

Ballatori is confident in career opportunities for the existing 40 Avia staff.

“By expanding our global reach as part of CTM, Avia will add new opportunities to network both US and international clients and work with the other CTM offices to support their US based clients as well,” she says.

“Our employees will see new and exciting career opportunities evolve as a result of our future growth initiatives.”

The acquisition will be funded entirely from current CTM cash reserves and an additional cash earn-out component will apply for outperformance in profit growth.