MIH’S ACQUISITION OF TBO TO FUEL NIJHAWAN’S GROWTH

In an attempt to take B2B travel portal Travel Boutique Online (TBO) to newer heights, Tek Travels Pvt. Ltd., which owns TBO, recently sold stake to Naspers, a leading multinational media group headquartered in South Africa. Tek Travels is part of the Indian travel conglomerate Nijhawan group. In an exclusive interview with T3, Ankush Nijhawan, Co-founder and CEO, TBO said, “MIH Group, a subsidiary of Naspers, which owns social networking site Ibibo, recently acquired a 51 per cent stake in TBO. This enables MIH to strengthen its presence in the Indian online travel market and TBO will leverage on MIH’s strengths to expand its reach in the international market.” TBO was launched in 2006 and mainly deals with airline and train tickets, besides hotels, bus or car booking, visa enquiry and travel insurance. It also facilitates chartering of aircraft and helicopters for the B2B segment. Nijhawan declined to specify the value of the deal. Encouraged by it, though, the Nijhawan group is all set to accelerate its involvement in the other verticals it has a presence in, including serviced apartments and the representation business. “We have currently nine rooms and we expect to offer 100 rooms in the next two years,” revealed Nijhawan. The Nijhawan group currently represents Armani and Address Hotels from Dubai, Sarova Hotel in Kenya, Constance Hotels Experience in Mauritius, Maldives and India, and the Turbojet ferry of Macau. “We will be representing few more hotels in Far East in next couple of months,” Nijhawan said. Moreover, Turbojet has also been getting good response from the Indian market and has grown significantly in India, he informed. Nijhawan also expects tremendous response for the Sarova Hotel in Kenya, at least a 35 per cent growth annually. His global expectations are further buoyed by the growing outbound travel numbers from India. “India is a key market to be captured by Constance Hotels. 75 per cent of Indians travelling opt for high-end luxury accommodations. We should be delivering 5,000 bed nights in 2012,” Nijhawan stated. The Nijhawan group has become the distributor for Gulf low-cost carrier FlyDubai, for Ahmedabad and Lucknow. However, airline representation is no longer a focus area for the group, due to falling commissions and the generally subdued aviation sector. He expects the maximum growth to come from TBO. “We aim to grow at least 50 per cent in 2012, despite the prevailing economic scenario,” he concluded.