Rockaway Capital acquires Unister travel assets ab-in-den-urlaub.de and fluege.de

Leipzig, 23 December 2016 – Rockaway Capital SE (“Rockaway Capital”) today announced that it
has signed an agreement with the administrator Prof. Dr. Lucas F. Flöther in his capacity as insolvency administrator of Unister to acquire former Unister travel assets consisting of some of the best-known brands in the German travel market: ab-in-den-urlaub.de (AIDU), fluege.de, reisen.de, billigfluege.de, reisegeier.de, urlaubstours.de, hotelreservierung.de and TravelViva. These leading online travel platforms will seamlessly continue to offer all of their services to customers on a high quality level. Building on the new foundations that have been created in the last few months, Rockaway Capital will implement a new compliance and corporate governance structure at the acquired assets to support the new beginning and further growth. The parties involved have agreed not to disclose financial details of the transaction.

Rockaway Capital is the leading internet investor in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) focusing on ecommerce and internet companies with high growth potential. With the online travel agency (OTA) Invia, Rockaway Capital already operates a well-established brand and a leading player in the CEE travel market. The acquired assets strategically fit Rockaway Capital’s ambitions to gain a foothold on the German market, to complement its portfolio and to expand its service offerings – for the benefit of customers who will have access to a wider range of high quality services.

“As Invia and the former Unister companies, especially AIDU, have the same business model, our
focus will be on leveraging combined forces and expertise with the vision to create a pan-European OTA leader. Our proven technology and superior know-how will allow us to provide the best service to up to 140 million existing and potential customers in Germany and beyond”, says Jaroslaw Czernek, Investment Partner at Rockaway Capital and Chairman at Invia.

Rockaway Capital is fully committed to the German travel market and will take over all of the about 520 remaining travel business employees. With a large talent pool and strong management team in place, Rockaway Capital is in an ideal position to take the travel platforms to the next level.

Insolvency administrator Prof. Dr. Lucas F. Flöther says: “Given its expertise in the travel sector, operational and financial strength, I consider Rockaway an ideal partner and I am confident that the new owner will unlock the acquired assets’ potential.”

The creditor committee has given their consent to the acquisition. The transaction is jointly financed by Rockaway Capital and CEFC, Rockaway Capital’s passive strategic financial partner for investments in the travel sector. “The investment in the German online travel agency ab-in-den-urlaub.de and the online airline-ticket seller fluege.de is a great opportunity and fits with our travel-industry development strategy. Through these companies, we also want to use the potential presented by growth in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Europe. We also plan to use the synergies and opportunities that our investment will provide in the areas of the travel industry, air transport and the hotel industry,” reinforces Marcela Hrdá, executive vice-president of CEFC Europe.

The former Unister travel assets will be acquired by the holding company Rockaway Capital Travel. The closing of the transaction is scheduled for the beginning of 2017.