Balmer Lawrie acquires premier holidays operator Vacations Exotica for an undisclosed amount

MUMBAI: State-owned Balmer Lawrie & Co’s travel and tour vertical has acquired premier holidays operator Vacations Exotica for an undisclosed amount, according to a release on Thursday.

The deal includes acquisition of the business and people of the private tour operator. ET Online broke the story earlier in the day.

Balmer Lawrie’s tour vertical is the largest travel agent providing domestic and international travel and ticketing, besides travel and tourism-related services. The deal will help further strengthen its foothold in the domain.

Vacations Exotica, one of the top five players in the tour destination industry, started operations in October 2007, and it has billings worth Rs 100 crore. Mumbai-based Singhi Advisors were advisors to the deal.

“Travel business is going through a phase of consolidation as service providers are offering value-added services which can enhance margins. The reduction of credit periods in ticketing business and also price-wars have pushed down margins in the air ticketing business significantly,” said Singhi Advisors partner Ajoy Lodha. Packaged tours business, especially outbound, has reasonable entry barriers and also far better margins and therefore attractive to players strong in ticketing space, Lodha added.

Singhi Advsors were advisors to a string of deals in the travel space including the sale of TSI Travel to Yatra Online.

Today, Balmer Lawrie has seven business units -- logistics infrastructure, logistics services, tours & travel, industrial packaging, greases & lubricants, performance chemicals and refinery & oilfield services with plants and offices spread across the country and abroad.