SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Helloworld Travel Limited (ASX: HLO) has agreed to acquire a 34% stake in Oslo based B2C travel business, Australiareiser from its founders.

Founded by Oslo based CEO Rolf Kjeseth in 2005, Australiareiser is a B2C operation and is the largest specialist travel wholesaler from Scandinavia to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific with offices in Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. Australiareiser’s other brands include Fijireiser, Private Travel Lab, Gruppe Rundreiser and Workations.

The consideration for the acquisition will be funded from HLO’s existing cash reserves. The acquisition will be earnings accretive in FY24 and beyond. The consideration represents an FY23 EBITDA multiple of approximately five times forecast earnings for Australiareiser. (Note the Australiareiser FY23 ends 31 December 2023).

Helloworld Travel Limited has been working with Australiareiser since 2014 when AOT acquired the business of ATS Pacific from HLO. Prior to that, the business had been working with ATS Pacific since its inception. AOT subsequently merged with HLO in 2016.

Andrew Burnes AO, CEO and Managing Director of Helloworld Travel Limited said, “We are delighted to announce that Australiareiser will become the launch customer for HLO’s mid-office system, ResWorld, in Europe.

We have spent the last 5 years developing this system for our agency networks in Australia and New Zealand and it is now at a point where we can take it to other countries and deploy it.

From Scandinavia we will be showcasing the functionality of ResWorld to potential customers across continental Europe and the UK and providing access to the system for retailers and wholesalers across these markets.”

Rolf Kjeseth, CEO of Australiareiser said he was delighted with the new equity partnership which cemented a long-term business relationship between Australiareiser and Helloworld Travel Limited.

“We have been working with ATS and HLO for a long time now. During this period, we had the opportunity to explore the new ResWorld system that HLO has developed, and it is a first-class product in our view and perfectly suited to our business in Europe. We will be implementing it in the next few months and are delighted to be the launch customer for this new mid-office system in partnership with Helloworld.”