<B>Agencies Do Deals</B>
By Megan Hjermstad
M&A activity continues on the travel agency front, with small and midsize players forming strategic alliances to increase their size and improve their positioning--and stay in the game.
So far, more than a half dozen deals have been done this year, including the continuing rollup by Navigant International, a merger of Salt Lake City agencies and a number of deals brokered by Atlanta-based Innovative Travel Acquisitions Inc.
Since April 1, Innovative Travel Acquisitions has brokered five transactions, including the most recent deal between Boston-based Fugazy Travel and San Jose, Calif.-based Apex Travel. Fugazy, a $100 million annual U.S.-booked air volume agency, acquired Apex, which in 1999 produced $40 million volume.
"Activity is high right now. People are certainly more open minded about having discreet conversations," said Bob Sweeney, president of Innovative Travel Acquisitions. "We have our hat in the ring for a couple of really large deals right now."
Innovative Travel also brokered the acquisition by Seattle-based Zuno Travel of Beaverton Travel, a Portland, Ore.-based agency that in 1999 produced $10 million in volume. "Zuno is on a roll," said Sweeney. "They are out to make some deals and are in late stage negotiations with a number of parties."
Innovative Travel also was involved in the move by Miami-based TraveLeaders Inc. to purchase the Travel Institute--a school with three locations in Michigan, which trains new and existing travel agents--and helped Nielsen Travel of Wilmington, N.C., acquire neighbors Allen Travel and Astral Travel Inc.
Navigant International in February made its most recent purchase of All Seasons Travel Group based in Houston, which reported $65 million in U.S. booked air volume in 1999
Meanwhile, Murdock Travel spun off its corporate travel business into a separate company--Murdock Travel Management--following a merger with Morris Travel in late March that created a single Salt Lake City-based entity. Murdock CEO Jeff Hanson will head up the new corporate business, while Morris CEO Mark Slack will head the solely leisure Morris Murdock Travel. No cash or stock changed hands in the merging of the $140 million volume Morris Travel, which sold its corporate business to American Express last May (<I>BTN,</I> May 17), and $61 million volume Murdock.