Travelport To Sell Stake In Orbitz/Travelport Unit

Travelport Limited announced today its intention to sell on the public market an unspecified ownership stake in its Orbitz Worldwide businesses, which include Orbitz For Business and the Travelport corporate booking tool, which it hopes to complete in the third quarter.

The size and proceed amounts of the initial public offering have yet to be determined. However, the company intends to use a portion of the proceeds to reduce its outstanding debt. Further details will be released in the second quarter of 2007, when Travelport intends to file its registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A private-equity consortium of The Blackstone Group, Technology Crossover Ventures and One Equity Partners has owned Travelport since its 2006 acquisition from Cendant Corp. Orbitz Worldwide sister brands Galileo and Gulliver's Travel Associates-also former holdings of Cendant Corp.-are not part of the IPO.

It's too early to tell how the IPO will affect corporate travel buyers, but Norm Rose, president of Belmont, Calif.-based Travel Tech Consulting, said that Travelport's move seems to be "more of a monetary transaction than a strategic one." Rose speculated that this move is more about offsetting debt than changing direction, but that it could have positive implications for business travel buyers. "Separation of the Orbitz business from core GDS business management creates a greater focus for online corporate business," he said.