HotelPlanner and Reservations.com Enter Three-Way Merger with Astrea Acquisition Corp. to Become a Public Company Listed on NASDAQ

Author: Benzinga Newsdesk | August 10, 2021 06:08am

HotelPlanner and Reservations.com, industry leaders in travel technology and online hotel bookings, today announced a three-way merger agreement with Astrea Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:ASAXU), a special purpose acquisition company, that will result in their combining as a publicly listed company on NASDAQ under the new ticker symbol "HOTP."
The combined company will keep the HotelPlanner name after consummation of the merger. HotelPlanner, with its family of brands including HotelPlanner.com, Meetings.com and now Reservations.com, will offer individual, group and corporate booking access to more than 1 million global properties, enabled by a proprietary, cloud-based, artificial intelligence technology platform, and a 24/7 global gig-based customer service platform.
The merger transaction is expected to enable HotelPlanner to transform into a diversified hotel and event booking platform with complementary revenue streams, and provide the combined company opportunities to realize multiple revenue and cost synergies to drive faster growth at scale.
HotelPlanner was able to prove its resilience during the height of the pandemic in 2020, experiencing only an estimated 23% decline in revenue. By contrast, the world's largest OTAs experienced a 2020 revenue decline of approximately 50%. Moreover, HotelPlanner expects its 2021 revenue to exceed 2019 revenue, which was a record year, by approximately 31%.
The combined company has a forecasted 2022 revenue of approximately $170 million and is expecting a three-year revenue CAGR (2020 to 2023) of approximately 42%.
The transaction values the combined company at an enterprise value of $567.1 million, plus additional consideration should it achieve market-based milestones.
HotelPlanner intends to use most of the anticipated net proceeds to accelerate organic growth by continuing to increase effectiveness in marketing spending, and accelerating investments in artificial intelligence, machine learning, onboarding of gig-based travel agents, innovations and API services. HotelPlanner also plans to seek growth through potential future acquisitions in adjacent or complementary markets.
An investor webcast and conference call will be held on August 10, 2021 at 8:00 am ET.

Posted In: ASAX ASAXU