Livingstone advises shareholders of vtours on sale to Hotelplan Group

Livingstone advised the shareholders of vtours GmbH and vtours International AG on the sale of the companies to Hotelplan Group. Livingstone acted as the exclusive financial advisor. A respective definitive agreement was signed on October 4th, 2019. Purchase price was not disclosed.

Following the acquisition, both vtours GmbH in Aschaffenburg as well as vtours international AG in Switzerland will continue to operate independently. Co-founder Achim Schneider will remain CEO of both providers of dynamically packaged travel tours and will directly report into Thomas Stirnimann, CEO of Hotelplan Group. vtours employs approx. 150 employees in Germany and in Switzerland. The location in Aschaffenburg will remain unchanged, while the offices in Glattbrugg will be integrated into the headquarters of Hotelplan Group.

“We have written a great success story with vtours these last 15 years and are happy to have a strong partner on our side to accompany the further development,” Achim Schneider (CEO vtours) commented. “Through the merger, we will be able to expand to European countries outside the DACH region and, in particular, benefit from the combined technological expertise to aid our expansion.”

“With vtours, we are pleased to acquire a profitable, creative, innovative and growing tour operator. Through the synergy potentials in the fields of IT, sourcing and distribution, vtours provides an excellent complementary fit to further grow in the German speaking region. We welcome Achim Schneider and his team to Hotelplan Group,” Thomas Stirnimann, CEO Hotelplan Group, stated

Vtours was founded in 2004 by Achim Schneider, Tobias Wolfshohl and Gerhard Ackermans and is one of the leading providers of dynamically packaged holidays in the German speaking countries. Swiss based vtours international AG is a sister company of vtours GmbH and was founded in 2015. The combined annual turnover of both vtours tour operators amounts to more than €400 million.

The product portfolio comprises packaged holidays, city- and round trips, covering more than 7,000 hotels in 195 destinations worldwide. vtours’ travel offering can be booked via travel agencies, all relevant online travel portals as well as online on vtours.com.

“Through their extensive and comprehensive advice, the Livingstone team, comprised of Jochen Hense and Philip Dorsemagen, made a strong contribution to the success of this transaction, and we are very satisfied with the results. During the sales process, our two advisors faced the complex challenges of the tourist market environment with high professionalism and creativity. Thanks to their strong expertise, they managed to bring the process to a successful close,” the sellers Achim Schneider and Tobias Wolfshohl added.

“We are pleased we were able to advise the sellers on the international sale process and believe we found the perfect strategic partner for vtours,” Jochen Hense, Managing Partner at Livingstone in Düsseldorf, commented.