Yanolja Co., South Korea’s largest trip-booking company, is set to acquire Israeli technology provider Go Global Travel (GGT) to become one of the world’s biggest travel solution platforms. Yanolja’s cloud business unit will buy GGT from AMI Opportunities Fund, advised by Apax Partners. While the purchase price remains private, Yanolja will gain access to GGT’s inventory of more than 1 million hotels and customers across North America and Europe.
SoftBank Group Corp.-backed Yanolja is expanding its cloud arm, serving the hospitality and leisure industries to grow beyond consumer trip bookings. While the travel industry is recovering from a pandemic-era trough, competition from rivals such as Airbnb Inc. and Expedia Group Inc. is intensifying.
Founded in 2005, Yanolja is betting on growth in software services for customers such as hotels and hospitality providers. According to a company filing, the global market for hotel property management systems is expected to grow more than 10% a year to about 1.8 trillion won ($1.4 billion) by 2027.
In 2022, Yanolja’s total sales rose about 83% to 605 billion won, although its operating profit fell 90% to 6.1 billion won because of rising marketing expenses and costs to pay for its acquisition of concert and travel ticket provider Interpark.
Yanolja’s market value exceeded more than 10 trillion won in 2021 on a private company stock trading platform but has almost halved since as its markets slowed. Yanolja is backed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund II, which holds about a 25% stake as of Dec. 31, and GIC Pte affiliate Apfin Investment. The Korean company has been mulling a stock-market listing in the US or at home.
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