Acquisition Builds on Long-Term Strategy and Immediately Defines
Triton as a Travel Distribution Leader Throughout Europe
Triton (OTCBB:TTDS), after months of negotiations and due diligence, is
completing its acquisition of ZTS, a diversified German-based travel
services company that for over twenty years has formed relationships
with some of Europe’s most respected travel
providers and has built a branded and growing customer base. The
purchase consists almost entirely of long-term debt; it is
seller-financed, non-recourse to Triton and results in minimal dilution
to Triton’s shareholders. An initial cash
progress payment was made in September and the second one, to complete
the acquisition, is expected to be made within the next several days.
The ZTS deal is the beginning of Triton’s
targeted and aggressive push to acquire established companies, migrate
them to the Triton technology platform and bring their customer
relationships, growth potential and revenues to Triton. Triton’s
acquisition strategy will focus on value-added opportunities with
prospects for significant improvement in gross margins, such as ZTS, and
where sellers carry back most of the acquisition price with long term
debt issued on a non-recourse basis; this strategy of acquiring revenues
with non-recourse debt will result in less potential dilution to
shareholders.
ZTS operates in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, and Eastern Europe
with annual sales revenue exceeding $147 million (USD) and gross
revenues estimated to reach $4 million (USD) and with estimated net
profit of $700,000 in 2008.
Triton and its next generation booking tool, ReservationExpert™
will process all travel requests initially handled by ZTS including all
booking, ticketing and exchanges. “This
acquisition provides us with a set of deals for European travel that
would have taken months to individually negotiate, a trusted and loyal
customer base and little to no duplication of corporate services. It is,
in no uncertain terms, a wonderful opportunity for us,”
said Gregory Lykiardopoulos, Chairman and CEO for Triton.
Triton now has immediate access to the three remaining major Global
Distribution Systems or GDS’s —
Worldspan, Amadeus and Sabre (Triton already has complete access to
Galileo). Each GDS has unique content for a part of the world’s
travel and now Triton will be able to offer to any user of
ReservationExpert, travel inventory from the four corners of the globe.
Triton inherits all of ZTS’ agreements with
travel providers. This includes TUI AG, one of the world’s
largest tourist firms owning travel agencies, hotels, airlines and
cruise ships, Deutsche Bundesbahn, one of Europe’s
largest rail lines, Steigenberger Hotels, a major European resort chain,
Best Western Europe, Thomas Cook Travel, 75 major tour operators and
much, much more.
Added advantages of this deal for Triton include IATA membership, a CRM
tool, cash management and travel fulfillment, a customer call center and
marketing and sales professionals.
About ZTS
ZTS (www.zts.net)
was founded 24 years ago and has become one of Europe’s
leading travel distributors with its web-based reservation system, a
suite of additional travel tools, fulfillment, and customer support and
database management.
About Triton Distribution Systems
Triton Distribution Systems (www.tritonds.com)
is a pioneer in low-cost, business-to-business, Internet-based travel
distribution and procurement solutions. Triton provides the electronic
distribution of travel inventory from airlines, car rental companies,
hotels, tour and cruise operators, and other travel vendors to travel
agencies and their clients on a global basis. Triton has developed a
broad-based suite of products, including ReservationExpert™,
TritonTwist™ and Red Dragon Express™
-- the world's first distribution gateway to the Chinese market.
Capital Group Communications, Inc.
Mark Bernhard or Daniel Shea,
415-332-7200
(Investor Inquires)
triton@capitalgc.com
