EQS-News: HomeToGo acquires a majority stake in KMW Reisen GmbH and Super Urlaub GmbH to enrich the leading vacation rental marketplace with thematic travel bundles

HomeToGo acquires a majority stake in KMW Reisen GmbH and Super Urlaub GmbH to enrich the leading vacation rental marketplace with thematic travel bundles

Luxembourg, 16 December 2023 - HomeToGo SE (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: HTG), the SaaS-enabled marketplace with the world’s largest selection of vacation rentals, announced a subsidiary of the Company has signed binding documents to acquire KMW Reisen GmbH and Super Urlaub GmbH. As a result of the transaction, HomeToGo will hold a 51% majority stake in the combined business. This includes the brands Kurz Mal Weg and Kurzurlaub, the two leading specialist providers in the DACH market for selling thematic travel bundled with hotel offerings for short trips, and includes amongst others the domains kurz-mal-weg.de, kurz-mal-weg.at, kurz-mal-weg.ch, kurzurlaub.de, kurzurlaub.at, and kurzreisen.de.

Deal financials
HomeToGo agreed to a consideration paid of around €31M, of which approximately €6M will be paid with Class A Shares of HomeToGo SE (financed through existing treasury shares). The purchase price is subject to a customary adjustment mechanism. Measured by transaction value, this majority deal is the largest acquisition in HomeToGo’s history. The closing of the transaction is expected to take place in early January 2024 with full consolidation by HomeToGo SE as of 1 January 2024. In FY/23 the acquired businesses expect to generate revenues of around €30M and an adjusted EBITDA margin of more than 25%.[1]

Deal rationale
This deal offers HomeToGo a unique opportunity to further strengthen its worldwide leading marketplace both on the demand and supply side. Kurz Mal Weg and Kurzurlaub’s strength in thematic travel bundled with hotels for short trips adds new shoulder season offerings for travelers - including a wide range of value-enhancing services such as wellness, sports, dining, gift vouchers and other offers. This complements HomeToGo’s existing strong high season demand and introduces upselling opportunities to efficiently boost repeat travel. In addition, it can enrich HomeToGo’s current vacation rental supply by creating even more unique stays with the addition of new value-enhanced services. By enhancing supply it opens the door for future cross-selling and redistribution of inventory across platforms, further boosting occupancy and propelling HomeToGo’s marketplace flywheel to drive additional repeat bookings. On top it opens up a new unique supply for customers of HomeToGo_PRO, HomeToGo’s B2B business segment.

The majority acquisition of Kurz Mal Weg and Kurzurlaub also enables HomeToGo to further attract a growing segment of travelers interested in short city breaks as well as wellness and dining, complementing its already unparalleled core offering of rentals in rural vacation destinations. According to a recent survey from the European Travel Commission, city breaks are the top planned type of leisure travel for Europeans in the next six months at a share of 19.3%.[2] In addition to a strong market for vacations in rural areas, the market segment of short city trips is expected to keep growing, driven by a higher average spend, increasing share of hotel/value bundles and a growing online penetration. With the complementary addition of trending wellness and culinary travel offers, this majority acquisition positions HomeToGo in a prime position to further expand its core offering.

With the strength of Kurz Mal Weg and Kurzurlaub combined, these key brands will have the added benefit of access to HomeToGo’s global reach and vacation rental selection as well as technology and marketing power.

Dr. Patrick Andrae, Co-founder & CEO, HomeToGo: “We are very excited to announce this majority acquisition today and join forces with two stellar brands, Kurz Mal Weg and Kurzurlaub. Both have a leading position in the highly attractive market for thematic travel and hotels for short trips. Plus, their matching geographical focus combined with a high potential customer group of short city trip and shoulder season travelers is a clear fit to help accelerate our marketplace on the demand and supply side. Together, we’ll be even more effective at targeting our combined travelers to drive high retention and further enhance HomeToGo’s profitable repeat business.”

David Wagner, CEO, Kurzurlaub: “We are thrilled to reach this milestone at Kurzurlaub, joining forces with brands that match our deep and proven understanding of travelers’ needs. Together with Kurz Mal Weg and HomeToGo, we will enable existing and additional accommodation partners, hotels, and activity providers to address an even bigger audience and continue our strong growth.”

Jan Seifried, CEO, Kurz Mal Weg: “HomeToGo and Kurzurlaub share our vision to offer unique travel experiences to everyone. We are confident that this joint collaboration will provide our customers with an unparalleled offering and experience to help enrich our industry in Europe. Our expertise already enables tailor-made solutions that focus on the needs of our travelers, as well as our experience and accommodation partners, and we look forward to strengthening this even further.” 

The Kurzurlaub and Kurz Mal Weg offices and teams will remain operationally independent from HomeToGo and the existing management teams will stay in place.

Conference Call
HomeToGo will host a conference call on the majority acquisition for its analysts and investors at 10:00 am CET on Monday 18 December 2023. The presentation will be held via a live audio webcast, hosted at https://www.webcast-eqs.com/hometogo2023-12. Interested participants can register in advance for the conference call - with the opportunity to take part in the Q&A session - at the following address: https://services.choruscall.it/DiamondPassRegistration/register?confirmationNumber=8299917&linkSecurityString=10e3cc01d4

About Kurz Mal Weg
KMW Reisen GmbH (KMW) operates one of the leading online marketplaces for short trips in the DACH region at kurz-mal-weg.de. Founded in 2001, the online pioneer Kurz Mal Weg has been part of the Fit Reisen Group (fitreisen.de) in Frankfurt am Main, the number one specialist for health and wellness travel in Europe, since 2016. With its technical expertise and comprehensive knowledge of the tour operator business, Kurz Mal Weg has been largely expanding its offering since its founding, focusing on Germany and its neighboring European countries. The Company’s portfolio comprises more than 19,000 travel offers. Kurz Mal Weg is based in Leipzig, Frankfurt am Main, and Hamburg.

About Kurzurlaub
Super Urlaub GmbH (Kurzurlaub) has grown to become one of the leading specialists for short trips in Germany, offering 30,000 bookable bundles in and around the country at fair prices. The company, which now has 70 employees in Schwerin, Berlin and Vienna and over 18 years of experience in the industry, offers top-quality city breaks, wellness trips and seaside vacations. In addition to bed and breakfast stays, Kurzurlaub offers many extras and a high standard of comfort to round off each personal thematic stay. Founded in 2005, Kurzurlaub operates both the online portal and, since 2017, the Kurzurlaub app.

About HomeToGo
HomeToGo was founded in 2014 with a vision to make incredible homes easily accessible to everyone. HomeToGo has since grown to become the SaaS-enabled marketplace with the world’s largest selection of vacation rentals.

With 15M+ offers across thousands of trusted partners globally, HomeToGo’s AI-powered marketplace expertly matches supply and demand to connect travelers with the perfect vacation rental for any trip around the world. As the go_to destination for vacation rentals, HomeToGo offers the world’s largest vacation rental selection combined with an end-to-end convenient, trusted and intuitive product experience.

HomeToGo_PRO, the Company’s B2B business segment, offers innovative Software & Service Solutions including Subscriptions for the whole travel market with a special focus on SaaS for the supply-side of vacation rentals.

While HomeToGo SE's registered office is located in Luxembourg, HomeToGo GmbH is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. HomeToGo operates localized apps and websites in 25 countries.

HomeToGo SE is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the stock ticker “HTG”.

For more information visit: www.hometogo.com/about

Media Contact
Caroline Burns
press@hometogo.com

Investor Relations Contact
Sebastian Grabert, CFA
+49 157 501 63731
IR@hometogo.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this release may constitute "forward-looking statements" that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of the words "may", "will", "should", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "project", "goal" or "target" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, forecasts, estimates, projections, opinions or plans that are inherently subject to significant risks, as well as uncertainties and contingencies that are subject to change. No representation is made or will be made by HomeToGo SE that any forward-looking statement will be achieved or will prove to be correct. The actual future business, financial position, results of operations and prospects may differ materially from those projected or forecast in the forward-looking statements. Neither HomeToGo SE nor any of their respective affiliates assume any obligation to update, and do not expect to publicly update, or publicly revise, any forward-looking statements or other information contained in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.

Use of Non-IFRS Performance Measures

This release includes certain financial measures not presented in accordance with IFRS, which may exclude items that are significant in understanding and assessing the Company's financial results. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to measures of profitability, liquidity or performance under IFRS. Regarding the alternative performance measures Adjusted EBITDA, Booking Revenues, Onsite Booking Revenues, Onsite Share and CPA Take Rate, the Company refers to the corresponding definitions published on its IR website under IR resources (https://ir.hometogo.de/).

^[1] Revenues are according to German GAAP (HGB) and based on unaudited pro-forma figures. Adjusted EBITDA margin is defined as pro-forma earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization and adjustments divided by pro-forma revenues.

^[2] Share of Europeans planning trips in Europe 2023, by purpose; Source: European Travel Commission, September 2023