Bravofly Rumbo Group will go public on 16 April

Bravofly Rumbo Group will list its shares on SIX Swiss Exchange. In the context of the IPO, the company will offer up to 2,625,000 newly-issued shares and the existing shareholders, namely the founders, certain private equity investors as well as other management shareholders, will offer 3,145,000 existing shares (the "Offered Shares" or the "Base Offer").

Bravofly Rumbo Group and all shareholders (other than Directors and Management and selling shareholders controlled by Directors or Management), have committed to a lock-up period of 180 days from the first day of trading, while the Board of Directors and Management have agreed to a lock-up of 360 days from the first day of trading, respectively, subject to customary exceptions.

The book-building process begins on 2 April 2014 and is expected to end on 15 April 2014. The announcement of the final offer price and the final number of Offered Shares is expected to be published on 16 April 2014. The listing of the shares and commencement of trading in Bravofly Rumbo Group shares on SIX Swiss Exchange is expected to take place on 16 April 2014.

The strategy of Bravofly Rumbo Group is to broaden its product offering, to expand into other geographical markets and to invest in its mobile and meta-search capabilities. The company will also continue to analyze the market to identify synergistic and robust acquisition opportunities, facilitating the growth in existing and new markets, both in flight and non-flight product categories. Hence, the gross proceeds from the offering of new shares of CHF 105 million (prior to exercise of the over-allotment option; whereof offering commissions and expenses payable by the Company are to be deducted) are intended to be used for seizing external growth opportunities by identifying and executing selected value creating acquisitions to grow the product and service offering and to expand the geographic footprint, as well as for general corporate purposes.

Fabio Cannavale, Chairman of Bravofly Rumbo Group, commented: "The IPO is the culmination of a transformation process that began a good decade ago. Started as a pioneer search engine in the Italian market, Bravofly Rumbo Group has evolved into a leading European OTA. The listing on SIX Swiss Exchange emphasizes our momentum and is a further milestone in our history. Going forward, we believe that Bravofly Rumbo Group's success will be underpinned by the strong structural growth of the European OTA market which is expected to grow double-digit this and next year, as well as the continued execution of our strategy built around our competitive strengths.* We have a portfolio of strong and established local brands, which collectively had on average more than 7 million unique visitors (non bounce) each month in 2013. Our sites address a wide range of consumer travel needs, providing our users with access to a vast array of travel inventory and content across a variety of travel products, including flights, hotels, vacation packages, cruises, rental cars, travel insurance and other ancillary products. We are differentiated in our ability to service consumers seeking human help by providing active call center support, which we see as a key advantage in the sale of more complex products such as cruises or dynamic holiday packages. The founders and the other key shareholders will retain a significant financial interest post IPO and continue to support Bravofly Rumbo Group's development."

Francesco Signoretti, CEO of Bravofly Rumbo Group, added: "In Europe, the distribution of travel products and services has historically been dominated by traditional "brick-and-mortar" travel agents. Over the last ten years however, the internet has disrupted the travel industry’s traditional sales channels. An increasing proportion of consumers are opting to book their travel arrangements online, benefiting from the convenience of 24/7 access, the option to research an exhaustive list of schedules and availability, and the ability to compare fares in real time and for suppliers online represents a low cost fulfillment channel. On the back of this development, online travel has become the largest global ecommerce category and we at Bravofly Rumbo Group have invested significant IT resources to benefit from this trend and are intending to spearhead this development going forward."