NEW PARISIAN GEM ADDED TO FLIGHT CENTRE'S EUROPEAN OFFERING

FLIGHT Centre (ASX: FLT) has added the Paris-based 3Mundi travel and technology business to its portfolio, marking the latest in a string of overseas acquisitions for the Brisbane travel company within the past year.

The deal will see Flight Centre take over a minority interest (25 per cent) in 3Mundi with an option to increase its holding to 100 per cent in the future.

In 2006, duo Jordy Staelen and Simon Renaud established 3Mundi and for the past two years it has been acting as Flight Centre's licensee in France and Switzerland for its global corporate travel management network.

Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner (pictured) says that by strengthening ties with 3Mundi, Flight Centre has a platform to seize rapidly growing markets.

"France and Switzerland are important corporate travel hubs for our existing customers and for new multi-national accounts that we are targeting globally," says Turner.

"This investment will deliver immediate benefits by strengthening our European presence and delivering new technology, products and tools that can be adapted and rolled out in other geographies and brands within our global network."

Off the back of this acquisition, Flight Centre now has European footprints in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France and Switzerland.

Looking towards Southern Europe, the acquired 3Mundi also operates a Barcelona-based business travel lab, which is developing proprietary artificial intelligence technology and products for the travel industry.

During its 2017 financial year, 3Mundi is expected to turnover approximately 100million. Flight Centre says the acquisition will likely be formally completed in July.

Business News Australia