South Korea’s largest travel-booking company Yanolja Co. is to acquire Israeli technology provider Go Global Travel. The acquisition will make Yanolja one of the world’s largest travel solution platforms.
Apax Mid-Market Israel (AMI), led by Zehavit Cohen, which controls Go Global Travel, is selling the Bnai Brak-based B2B hotel and technology provider to Yanolja, which is controlled by Japan's SoftBank.
No financial details about the deal were disclosed but market sources believe that AMI, which has invested about $85 million, has made a handsome profit on the sale. Go Global Travel has developed a search engine for travel agencies to book hotel rooms and other tourist services.
During the tech boom at the end of 2021, AMI's investment in Go Global Travel was worth an estimated $200 million. Private equity fund AMI has an 87% stake in Go Global Travel, after initially buying an 80% stake in 2017.
Since it was founded in 2000, Go Global Travel has been managed by president Nino Tager. Go Global Travel currently links 10,000 tourism platforms with a million hotel rooms, car rentals and flights in Europe and North America. The acquisition will help Yanolja expanding its cloud arm serving the hospitality and leisure industries to Europe and North America.
Yanolja Co. was represented in the deal by Watson Farley & Williams law firm and Advs. Jacob Enoch, David Ya’acobi and Ahmad Diab from Firon.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 15, 2023.
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