The first jump onto the stock market of the year takes shape within the Spanish stock market. Hotelbeds is expected to present its intention to go public (ITF)thus starting its career to become a public company. Thus, 2025 will bring a new listed company that is closer to Amadeus than to Meliá Hotels, despite its name, since its business is focused on supporting the tourism business through technology.
To begin with, the holding company Hotelbeds is owned by the HBX tourism group. The company has a presence in more than 170 countries and focuses mainly on acting as intermediary between tourism service providers (such as hotel chains or airlines) with distributors that are included in travel agencies and other operators. That is, Hotelbeds provides the support and technology so that companies can deliver their services to businesses in contact with the client and not to the ultimate consumer, as may be the case of Airbnb.
This places the aspiring listed company closer to the activity of Amadeus than to that of Meliá Hotels or NH Hotels, although the same hotel chains sell packages of their rooms so that others can manage the reservations. But just because your business is similar does not mean that it is the same or that you operate in the same markets. He Hotelbeds turnover It is, today, more modest than that of Amadeus. Compared to the 2,063 million euros of gross operating profit that the latter company achieved in 2023, Hotelbeds closed the same year with an EBITDA of 356 million euros. However, the investor can find metrics that allow a better comparison of the future stock market debutant and even make assessments of what the market capitalization may be at its IPO.
In the same segment as Amadeus or Hotelbeds are others listed outside the eurozone such as Expedia or Saber (present on Wall Street). The sector is trading with a company valuation ratio compared to gross operating profit (ebitda) of 12.7 times. If the aspiring listed company grew the same as the sector average in 2024, 24% according to the forecasts collected by FactSet, the valuations would rise to 5.6 billion euros, which, without the debt, would be 3.7 billion euros. On the contrary, applying to this ratio the expected profit at Hotelbeds in 2024 With the company’s expectations, its listed valuation would be 5,070 million euros. From this we would have to subtract the company’s debt, which would reach 1.3 billion euros with data at the end of 2023.
The main shareholders of the company, the international funds Cinve, EQT and Canada Pension Plan investment Board (CPPIB); aspire to a valuation of between 5,000 and 6,000 million eurosaccording to market sources.
The company’s IPO has to follow several steps before what is known as the ‘ringing of the bell’. The company will first carry out the official listing announcement known as ITF (intention to float). This step is planned throughout this morning. Next would be the presentation to the CNMV of the prospectus in which HBX Group will detail to investors what the intentions of its IPO are, the free float that it will make available to investors and the group’s expectations for coming years. That is, the information that every investor would want to have before deciding whether to become a shareholder or not.
What is known so far
Until now, the company has focused all its efforts on strengthening its balance sheet and normalizing its activity after the exercises following the coronavirus pandemic that affected all businesses linked to tourism. Recently, the company achieved a agreement to refinance up to 1.3 billion euros of debt. A step focused on cleaning up Hotelbeds’ balance sheet before its public sale. This, together with the improvement in profits that in 2023 (last full year available) involved doubling its ebitda and reaching approximately revenue of 8 billion euros and an operating margin of 56%, are the main muscle to present to the market.
However, the details of the operation are unknown to date, although it is planned that Hotelbeds will combine a public offer for subscription of new securities (OPS) with a public offer for sale (IPO), which is a common formula used in these cases and which It was already seen in the recent IPOs in the Spanish market.
The IPO of the Spanish company, which represents the first European IPO so far this year, puts to rest the doubts that have filled other companies that they valued an IPO in recent months, as Europastrywhich backed down at the last minute, or Tendam, the owner of Springfield, who never made that much progress in her plans.
Other IPOs, such as Cox’s, have gone ahead, although the debut of the company chaired by Enrique Riquelme ended with falls. The market also expects that during 2025 the gaming chain Cirsa, owned by Blackstone, or the airline Volotea will finalize their roadmap.
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