Travelport Announces £1.2 Billion in London Listings

Apparently Travelport, the airline and hotel reservation group, is planning a £1.2 billion London stock market listing to pay debts taken on by its owner. The owner of the group is Blackstone, the cash strapped United States equity group with assets that include the Hilton Group.

The group runs the Galileo booking system for travel agents, airlines and for hotels. In its most recent quarter, the company showed reports of earning about $93 million on sales of $570 million. The flotation is expected to value the company at about £1.8 billion. The flotation is being handled by UBS, Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank.

If the flotation is successful, then it would be the biggest stock market listing since Fresnillo, the Mexican-based company which floated in spring of 2008. It will be keenly watched by financial markets as a barometer for the confidence of the IPO market.

Some other privately owned companies include Ocado, the online grocery retailer, Pets at Home, fashion retailer New Look and Merlin Entertainments. Travelport had planned to float in 2008 but pulled its plans when the market took a big nose dive.

Blackstone bought Travelport for $4.3 billion from American company Cedant in 2006. This happened before the group was merged with its rival Worldspan. It will be interesting to see how this new London listing shapes up. The economy has been down all over the world, and this could be a good chance to judge how it is coming along. Many eyes will be on the stock market over the next few months.