The acquisitions of Sabre Holdings and
Windstar Cruises for $5.3 billion and $100 million, respectively,
closed within the past 10 days.
Affiliates of the
Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners completed their $5.4
billion leveraged buyout of Sabre on March 30 for $32.75 per
share.
Stockholders,
representing 62% of the outstanding shares and about 87% of the
shares that were voted, approved the Sabre transaction.
Days before the
vote, Sabre settled litigation, providing a sweetener to
stockholders. Under certain circumstances, the company agreed to
pay stockholders up to 25% of the resale profit if it sells at
least 60% of Sabre or Travelocity by the end of
September.
TSG, Sabre's stock
symbol, was removed from the New York Stock Exchange on April 2,
signaling the company's transition to the private
sector.
Although Sabre is
now a private company, it intends to keep reporting some of its
financial results because some of its debt is public.
As part of the
maneuvering, key members of Sabre's top management received and
exercised the right to invest in up to 2% in aggregate of the
common and preferred stock of Sovereign Holdings, Sabre's new
parent.
The president of
Sovereign Holdings is Karl Peterson, a TPG partner and the former
CEO of Hotwire.
As part of the
transition to the private sector, Sabre's board was disbanded, and
Sam Gilliland therefore lost his chairman's title. He remains
president and CEO of Sabre.
In another change,
Ellen Keszler, president of Travelocity Business since its founding
in 2003 and longtime Sabre executive, will leave the company after
a short transition, said Travelocity Business spokesman Michael
Brophy.
Travelocity
Business appointed Lesley Harris, previously vice president of
sales and customer care at Travelocity, as the new president of
Sabre's corporate travel unit.
Sabre revealed the
changing of the guard on April 4, days after the buyout by TPG and
Silver Lake Partners was completed.
However, Brophy
said Keszler left for family reasons and that the move was
unrelated to the buyout.
Ambassadors to renovate Windstar ships
Ambassadors
International, meanwhile, completed its acquisition of luxury line
Windstar Cruises from Carnival Corp. on April 2.
The $100 million
deal was announced in late February.
Windstar's three
ships, the 148-passenger Wind Star and Wind Spirit and the
312-passenger Wind Surf, sail in the Caribbean and Costa Rica in
the winter and in the Mediterranean the rest of the
year.
Ambassadors plans
to renovate the Wind Star and Wind Spirit this year, continuing the
fleet refurbishment that was begun last year by Holland America
Line, the Carnival subsidiary that formerly operated Windstar.
To
contact reporter Dennis Schaal, send e-mail to [email protected].