Major Travel Group Considering Float

12 October 2004

Major Travel Group Considering Float

New Zealand's largest outbound travel services business, Gullivers Travel Group, is considering an initial public offering of shares (IPO) and listing on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

Gullivers' founder and managing director Andrew Bagnall said today that the company was well advanced in its preparation for an IPO. UBS has been appointed as the lead manager of the proposed float.

Established in 1976, the Gullivers Travel Group now includes the Holiday Shoppe and United Travel retail leisure franchises, corporate travel management companies Atlantic Pacific Radius and Signature Travel and wholesale and ticketing businesses Gullivers Holidays and Gullivers Ticketing. The Group also comprises travel management software development and distribution businesses.

Mr Bagnall said the IPO was being considered among a range of possible options for the future capital and ownership structure of the Group.

"Assuming it proceeds, it is expected that the IPO will be launched in November," he said. "The offer will be targeted to institutional investors in New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere, and retail investors who will principally be clients of leading brokers in New Zealand."

The Group has appointed Jeff Todd, a noted business and government adviser and non-executive director, as its chairman.

Mr Todd was the managing partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers New Zealand and Pacific prior to his retirement in 1998. Since that time he has been a director of a number of companies and currently is chairman of Dynasty Hotel Group Ltd and The New Zealand Guardian Trust Co Ltd and a director of Sanford Ltd, Southern Cross Healthcare and a member of the council of Massey University. Mr Todd was formerly a director at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and ANZ Banking Group.

The other members of the Board of Gullivers Travel Group include the founder, Andrew Bagnall, Rob McLeod (chairman of the Business Roundtable, director of Telecom NZ and SKYCITY, and previous chairman of Ernst & Young), Rick Ellis (chief executive of EDS and former chief executive of TVNZ), Rod McGeoch (chairman of SKYCITY, director of Telecom NZ and chairman emeritus of Corrs Chambers Westgarth in Sydney) and Paul Norling (former managing director of merchant bankers Bancorp).

ENDS

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