High end worth tour operator

Service(s): Interim Management
Sector: Hospitality and leisure

The largest family owned high end Tour Operator in the UK, with revenues in excess of £100m, 550 staff and operations located worldwide, including USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Asia. The company was experiencing an acute liquidity crisis, caused by financial mismanagement and a pending CAA revocation of license which, had it been implemented, would have closed the company immediately. Additional finance was urgently being sought to recapitalise the company.

FRP Transition was appointed to introduce a senior Finance Director (FD), conversant in currency exchange (FX) hedging, financial systems breakdown and due diligence, which they were able to achieve. Once installed the senior FD immediately enforced a lock down on all legal and financial information. The short term cash position was managed, with stringent cash controls and FX hedging procedures. The finance function was rapidly transformed, introducing key controls and robust monthly financial reporting. As the route to a deal became a trade sale, a demanding due diligence process with a preferred bidder was entered into. Pivotal to this was a reliance on EBITDA, add-back and cashflow projections, showing an underlying valuable core business.

A successful recapitalisation was achieved with a trade sale to Saga Holidays and the bank was returned all outstanding debt.