Irish hotel booking company plans AIM flotation

A software and hotels reservation company based in Kenmare, Co Kerry, is to float on London's Alternative Investment Market in April, in a bid to raise up to $80 million (€65 million).

CNG Hotels Ltd, which is to float as CNG Travel Group plc, had a turnover of $500 million in 2003, according to Mr Finbarr Power, chief executive and 20 per cent owner of the company.

The amount to be raised from the flotation will depend on whether some deals currently being worked on have been closed by the time of the float, which is scheduled for late April.

Thirty per cent of the company is being floated. If the deals are not completed by the date, the company hopes to raise $50 million.

The company's accounts for 2002 and 2003 have not yet been filed in the Companies Registration Office. The accounts for earlier years do not include the increased turnover that resulted from a significant acquisition in 2003. The float, if successful, would value the company at approximately $230 million.

The funds raised in the flotation are to be used on sales and marketing initiatives, to increase revenue through growth and acquisitions, and to fund the roll- out of the company's software.

The company's core business is the "distribution of hotel room nights" to travel agents and consumers, with an emphasis on the US corporate hotel market. It has its own software, TLC. The company provides specialist technology that links travel agents to hotel rooms.

Mr Power sold a previous business, International Translation & Publishing Ltd, to DCC for $5 million in 1997, and set up CNG in 1999. A number of colleagues he has worked with over the years and who are now executives in CNG, own a further 10 per cent of the company. Another significant shareholder is Mr Séamus Ross, of Menolly Homes. There are also a number of small shareholders including Ms Gillian Bowler.

Mr Power said the acquisition of a US business travel agency chain during 2003, Tzell, significantly added to the turnover of CNG. The company employs 55 people in Kenmare, where it has its customer services and software development operation. Tzell has about 60 employees in the US but also about 600 commission agents. The company is hoping to sign up a significant number of new smaller travel agents in the US during 2004.

Mr Power said the company was being listed in London because it was an international business and because there was an "immediate appetite" for the project in London. The same appetite had not existed in Dublin.

In a press statement, CNG said it had a centrally managed database with an inventory of more than 16,000 hotels, making it one of the largest distributors of hotel room nights in the world.