Portman buys Fleet Street Travel

Portman Travel has bought rival agency Fleet Street Travel in a multi-million pound deal.

The acquisition follows the purchase of P&O Travel in November 2006.

The deal makes Portman one of the largest independent TMCS in Britain with projected turnover for 2008 of £400m.

Graham Flack, Portman's ceo, said: "The acquisition of Fleet Street Travel enhances our substantial influence in the UK travel management market at a time when we are increasing our presence on the global stage via an accelerated investment in Radius, the global TMC grouping.

"Taken together, these developments make us a bigger player both domestically and internationally."

Mr Flack added: "The acquisition of Fleet Street Travel is part of our strategy to grow the business both organically and through acquisition, cementing our position in the mid-market as the provider of smart travel management programmes supported by outstanding customer service."

He said the TMC which has offices in London and Glasgow, had a "substantial appetite" for further similar acquisitions.

Portman whose parent company is Portman Group holdings, is supported by private equity firm Vision Capital in its strategy.

Fleet Street was founded in 1986 and has offices in London, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Its managing director Michael Hare will join the Portman Board and executive team.

IHG's pre-tax profit dips by 6.9%

The InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) announced a slight drop of 6.9% in pre-tax profits from £247m in 2006 to £230m in 2007.

But the chain, whose brands include InterContinental and Holiday Inn, claimed it was a year of "good performance" with operating profit up 6% from £231m to £245m, gross revenues up 14% to $18bn and revenue per available room (revPAR) up by 7%.

During the year, IHG had a net increase in rooms of 28,848 with a further 125,533 in the pipeline, the bulk of these (75,279) in the EMEAEurope, Middle East and Africa region.

Revenue for the region rose by 23.7% from £198m in 2006 to £241m in 2007 while operating profit increased by 81.1% from £37m to £67m.

IHG said that revPAR in EMEA went up by 8.6%, pushed by the "positive market conditions" in the UK, France and the Middle East.

Revenue among its owned and leased hotels in EMEA rose by 31.5% to £121m, mainly as a result of the re-opening of the InterContinental Park Lane in London and strong growth at the InterContinental Paris Le Grand.

Revenues from managed properties in the region increased by 18.3% to £84m with the group saying there was strong trading in Spain and Russia as well as the UK and Middle East.

Andrew Cosslett, ceo of IHG, said: "IHG delivered a strong performance in 2007 reporting continuing revenue growth of 20% in constant currency.

"The number of rooms in our system grew by a record 5% and global revPAR increased 7%, with all our brands out-performing in their major markets across the world.

"We signed almost 900 hotels into our development pipeline during the year, more than three times the number signed in 2003, our first year as an independent company."

Mr Cosslett also confirmed, as previously reported, that IHG would be opening its first Staybridge Suites in the UK this year.