Travel management company Travel and Transport has fully
acquired global travel agency network Radius Travel, having completed the
process over the past few years of buying out the network's other two owners.
As Radius Travel president and CEO Shannon Hyland moves to
his new title of senior vice president of global services for Travel and
Transport, he said it "first and foremost will be business as usual."
Radius will maintain its global headquarters in Bethesda, Md. The network of
more than 100 partner agencies around the world also will globalize some of
Travel and Transport's technology and tools, he said.
"We certainly are going to be in a position to better
leverage Travel and Transport's scale now that we are a subsidiary, and it will
better position us with suppliers and third-party technology providers,"
Hyland said. "Our place in the industry is more fortified."
Travel and Transport CEO Kevin O'Malley said investments
would focus on "proprietary Travel and Transport tools," including "what
we can do as far as creating more commonality on the platform, aggregating
content and solving [IATA's New Distribution
Capability standard] as it continues to evolve."
Radius over the years has moved away from its original
business model. The shareholder model, in which all members had a share in the
company, had become "a bit unwieldy to manage." In 2011, a large
investment consolidated more than 80% of Radius to three owners: Travel and
Transport, India-based Cox & Kings and U.K.-based Portman Travel. Travel
and Transport has been working toward full ownership of Radius since 2015. It
completed the buyout of Cox & Kings' shares last month and had bought Portman's
shares a few years prior; Portman merged with Clarity Travel Management in
2016.
Hyland said Travel and Transport was "the most obvious
candidate" for sole ownership, as it "has had a longtime interest in
Radius as a shareholder and member and has been a very successful company and
will continue to be a successful company for years going forward."
He
continued: "As we were working on our strategic plan in 2015, we saw what
was going on in the industry, which continues to go on today: the incredible
pace of consolidation, with suppliers getting more scale. We thought it would
be in our best interest, to make sure Radius would continue to thrive 10 years
down the road, to align with a TMC."
Following the acquisition, Radius promoted chief commercial
officer Kieran Hartwell to president.
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Source: Business Travel News