MOMONDO GROUP FLYING HIGH WITH NEW FINANCE FROM BARCLAYS

Thursday 5th June, Online travel search company Momondo Group has secured a £5 million revolving credit facility from Barclays to help it to continue to fund its global expansion and enable the business to move quickly to secure future acquisitions.

Momondo Group offers travel search and inspirational travel information, advice and tips to millions of people around the globe, enabling them to find the options that best suit their needs. The company has two core brands and operates in over 25 countries and territories around the world, in more than 20 languages.

The London-based company, formerly Cheapflights Media Ltd, acquired Copenhagen-based travel outfit momondo in 2011, and rebranded as Momondo Group in 2012, retaining both the momondo and Cheapflights brands. The acquisition of, and subsequent investment in momondo, enabled the company to further develop its geographical presence in non-English speaking markets and increase the demographic spread of its users with a more diverse portfolio of products. It has since experienced rapid growth in the US, Western Europe, Russia and the Nordics, while launching dedicated websites in ten new markets in the past 18 months, including New Zealand, China, Brazil and Mexico. 

Momondo Group has recently launched a new metasearch site for its Cheapflights brand in New Zealand, and expanded its mobile offering with apps on three major platforms, to respond to the increasing volume of traffic arriving at its sites from mobile devices.

Having paid down the debt taken on to acquire and integrate momondo as well as develop its position in the rapidly-growing metasearch market, momondo is well placed to execute the next phase of its strategy.  Momondo Group’s management team has worked with Barclays to put in place a new debt facility to enable it to move quickly on potential acquisitions and other investment opportunities.

Alan Martin, CFO at Momondo Group, said: “Taking up debt and making the acquisition as we did was transformative for the business. From this enlarged base and having paid down our debt out of cashflow, there are a lot of other interesting opportunities in the marketplace that we intend to leverage in the future. We have planned for, and delivered, significant business growth over the past two years – reaching millions more users in countries around the world and helping them to compare and choose their travel options more easily.

“Through the good working relationship we have established with Barclays in recent years, we have been able to secure a revolving credit facility that will give us the flexibility to expand the company, delivering a broader range of engaging travel search products and services, to new users around the world.”

Piers Deppe, Relationship Director, Barclays’ Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) team, said: “Momondo Group is a highly innovative business and has proven that it can bring together two very distinctive brands and cultures under one roof to successfully co-exist.  The company has a track record of making prudent acquisitions and has shown impressive growth in a number of global markets. We are fully behind its plans to continue to grow and maintain its position as one of the biggest names in the travel search market.”