Hostelworld acquires B2B event discovery platform OccasionGenius

(Sharecast News) - Hostel booking platform Hostelworld has acquired US-based B2B event discovery platform OccasionGenius for $12m in cash as part of an effort to enhance its social travel platform offering. Hostelworld said the acquisition represented "a natural progression" of its growth strategy and builds on the success of its social strategy, reinforcing its ambition to create "the world's leading social travel platform".

The London-listed firm also stated the acquisition accelerates the development of its events capability, giving it immediate access to structured, global event data - content that would otherwise take years to build organically.

Once fully integrated, Hostelworld said the new content will enhance the "breadth and relevance" of its platform, driving increased growth in Social members, bookings and Social Network revenues that collectively strengthen financial performance.

Hostelworld added that the consideration will be fully funded by a new €10.3m, three-year term loan facility with Allied Irish Bank, which will have an interest rate payable of 2.0% over EURIBOR. Hostelworld stated its leverage position remained "comfortably below" its target of 1.0x.

Chief exeutive Gary Morrison said: "The acquisition of OccasionGenius is a significant development which positions Hostelworld as the first social travel platform with an integrated offering of social networking, event discovery and accommodation. This acquisition allows us to immediately supercharge our platform with a wealth of content that would take us years to build organically and enhances value creation opportunities for our shareholders."

As of 1010 BST, Hostelworld shares were up 0.40% at 127p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com