IK Small Cap I Fund, advised by IK Investment Partners (“IK”), the leading Pan-European private equity firm, announces today that it has reached an agreement to sell Touristry Group Holding AB (“Touristry” or “the Company”), a market leading operator of sightseeing buses and boats and a provider of tourism related services, to Amsterdam-based Tourism Group Holding B.V. (“TGH”). Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.
Founded in Stockholm in 2011, Touristry quickly gained market share from the incumbent market dominating player. Originally launched as a new brand of “hop on, hop off” buses, Touristry transformed the Nordic tourism sector by unveiling a fleet of modern bright red vehicles equipped with free Wi-Fi and multilingual audio guides. In 2014, the Company further expanded by adding hop-on, hop off sightseeing boats to its offering in Stockholm. Touristry offers an array of tourism services to approximately 2 million customers a year.
In addition to helping cement Touristry’s market leading position in the Nordic region, IK enabled the company to expand into Germany via two add-on acquisitions. Touristy now boasts a presence across Northern European tourist destination cities, including Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, and Berlin.
Commenting on the sale, Kristian Carlsson Kemppinen, Partner at IK Investment Partners and advisor to the IK Small Cap I Fund said: “Touristry has been a success story and we have greatly enjoyed working with its entrepreneurial team. It has been a pleasure seeing the business grow to new heights. IK remains very interested in supporting management teams and investing in growing and innovative companies across Europe, and helping them to become market leaders like Touristry.”
Micha Gottfarb, founder of Touristry and CEO, commented: “Since our very first meeting, the business relationship with IK has been underpinned by mutual trust and a shared vision. With IK’s help we were able to transform Touristry into a truly international business, with the scale and functionality to grow and sustain our market share. I look forward to building on our success in this next chapter for the company together with our new partner, TGH.”
Dirk Lubbers, CEO of TGH, said: “In Touristry we identified a company which had all the ingredients of a great business: innovation, a unique concept, and a product that was widely loved by the market. We look forward to working with Micha and his team to expand Touristry even further and ensure that the European tourism market continues to benefit from the great customer experience Touristry is able to provide. After our very successful expansion in Amsterdam we are thrilled to be able to realise a powerful urban tourism concept abroad. And as a result of our first foreign acquisition, I am proud to announce our new name; Tourism Group International.”
For further questions, please contact:
IK Investment Partners
Kristian Carlsson Kemppinen, Partner
Phone: +46 8 678 9500
Mikaela Hedborg
Director Communications & ESG
Phone: +44 77 87 573 566
mikaela.hedborg@ikinvest.com
Touristry
Micha Gottfarb, CEO
Phone: +46 709 35 53 93
micha@touristry.se
Tourism Group Holding
Dirk Lubbers, CEO
Phone: +31 (0)20 5300 919
d.lubbers@tourismgroupholding.com
About Touristry
Touristry is a market leading provider of tourism related services in the Nordics, primarily focused on bus and boat sightseeing (“Hop-On, Hop-Off”). Headquartered in Stockholm, the company has grown rapidly by expanding with its main brands Red Buses and Red Sightseeing and today provides services to over 2 million tourists per year in the Nordic region.
About IK Investment Partners
IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is a Pan-European private equity firm focused on investments in the Nordics, DACH region, France, and Benelux. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €9.5 billion of capital and invested in over 115 European companies. IK funds support companies with strong underlying potential, partnering with management teams and investors to create robust, well-positioned businesses with excellent long-term prospects. For more information, visit www.ikinvest.com
About Tourism Group Holding
Founded by Erik de Visser in 1983, TGH has grown from a family owned ticket reseller into the leading tour operator for urban tourism in the Netherlands. Through several strategic acquisitions TGH created a fully integrated urban tourism company offering unrivalled visitor experience by offering a broad range of tickets to local museums, attractions, Amsterdam canal cruises, hop-on hop-off bus trips, and fun excursions to other places in the Netherlands and Belgium. For more information visit www.tours-tickets.com
