back to press releases
12 March 2018

Enterprise Investors partially exits Novaturas

Warsaw, 12 March 2018 — Polish Enterprise Fund VI (PEF VI), a private equity fund managed by Enterprise Investors (EI), has partially exited Novaturas, the leading tour operator in the Baltic region, through an IPO on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) and on Nasdaq Vilnius.

  • The transaction generated gross proceeds of EUR 17.8 million;
  • PEF VI sold 22% of Novaturas and retained a 49% stake in the company;
  • This was the 35th IPO from EI’s portfolio and the first on Nasdaq Vilnius.

Novaturas was established in 1999 and in 2007 Enterprise Investors acquired a 71% stake in the company, investing in its further growth. First-rate reliability and reputation, coupled with the Baltic States’ good macroeconomic position and growing consumption, have helped Novaturas become the number one market player in the region. Today the company is the leading travel operator in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, both in terms of sales value and passenger volumes. Novaturas offers summer and winter package holidays as well as sightseeing tours to more than 30 destinations worldwide, including the most popular holiday resorts in southern Europe as well as select locations in North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

The company uses diverse and complementary distribution channels – it works with over 400 travel agencies, including all the major ones in the Baltics and more than 60 in Belarus. It also operates its own stores in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and is developing an e-commerce channel. In 2017, the company’s revenues increased by nearly 40% y/y to EUR 141 million. In the same period EBITDA and net profit almost doubled and reached EUR 10.6 million and EUR 8.2 million respectively. Early bookings at the end of 2017 were up by 84% compared to the same period in the preceding year.

“The Novaturas business model has proved appealing to investors. In the future, management plans to distribute up to 80% of the net profit to shareholders. This combined with positive macroeconomic trends in the region and Novaturas’s operational excellence creates a good outlook for the company’s investor base,” said Sebastian Król, the Enterprise Investors partner responsible for this investment.

Enterprise Investors is one of the largest private equity firms in Central and Eastern Europe. Active since 1990, the firm has raised nine funds with total capital exceeding EUR 2.5 billion. These funds have invested EUR 1.8 billion in 139 companies across a range of sectors and exited 126 companies with total gross proceeds of EUR 3.6 billion.

For further information please contact:
Anna Czywczyńska,
Communications & Public Affairs Director, Enterprise Investors
tel.: +48 22 458 8500
www.ei.com.pl