Triton, a Swedish private equity group that invests in medium-sized businesses, has announced it will acquire the tour operating activities of Corendon Holiday Group. The agreement consists of the Corendon tour operating activities in the Netherlands and Belgium, back-office operations in Turkey, and Corendon Dutch Airlines (CD, Amsterdam Schiphol).
The deal also includes the Corendon brands Karin’s Choice, Maris Life, Stip, and GOfun, a statement posted on Triton's website on June 3 revealed. However, the Turkey-based leisure carrier Corendon Airlines (XC, Antalya) and Maltese charter carrier Corendon Airlines Europe (XR, Malta International), as well as the hotels of Corendon Hotels & Resorts, are not part of the transaction.
The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approvals and employee consultation, will be made through Sunweb, a Zurich-based travel group Triton bought earlier this year. The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Founded in 2000, Corendon Holiday Group creates package holidays for around 750,000 Dutch and Belgian customers annually with a EUR515 million euro (USD580 million) turnover in 2018. When completed, the acquisition will merge Sunweb and Corendon into a joint company "under Triton support taking advantage of enhanced scale, financial strength, innovation culture, a larger client base, and airline capacity", the statement said.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Corendon Dutch Airlines operates a fleet of three B737-800s.
On May 23, Triton made a takeover bid for the Nordic operations of tour operator Thomas Cook Group, Reuters reported at the time, an unsolicited offer that the cash-strapped operator said it was considering even though the talks were at a preliminary stage.
