Carlson Wagonlit Move In France Tilts At Amex By Taking From TQ3

TQ3 Travel Solutions has lost French licensee Protravel to Carlson Wagonlit Travel. CWT and Protravel will create a new company under the Carlson Wagonlit name. However, Protravel is contracted to remain a licensee of TQ3 until December 2004. TQ3 said it would replace Protravel with a wholly owned business in France.

The deal is the first of a round of business travel agency mergers and acquisitions in Europe that has been expected since American Express bought Rosenbluth International this summer. Next under the hammer could be BTI Central Europe, which owns 8 percent of Business Travel International. BTI Central Europe's parent company, Kuoni, has declared that business travel is no longer a core activity. The two most likely buyers for BTI Central Europe are Dutch BCD Holdings (parent of WorldTravel BTI) or Hogg Robinson of the United Kingdom, which each currently own 46 percent of BTI.

Present managing director of Protravel Jean-Claude Tacnet will run the new Carlson Wagonlit unit, which will be 70 percent owned by Carlson Wagonlit, with the remaining 30 percent owned by Protravel. The deal increases CWT's volume by 50 percent in France and 7 percent worldwide. Carlson Wagonlit and Protravel are the second- and third-largest players, respectively, in the French corporate travel market, but the merged entity still will be smaller than market leader American Express Havas Voyages.

The Protravel deal mainly involved exchange of paper rather than cash and president Herve Gourio said Carlson Wagonlit has strong cash flow that will enable it to make further acquisitions from its own funds. Carlson Wagonlit said it has signed US$1 billion of new business in 2003 but wishes to grow its marketshare rapidly to compete with global market leader American Express.