Yorkshire Bank backs multi million pound refinancing of Traveljigsaw

Traveljigsaw, the Manchester-based online travel agent (OTA) specialising in car rentals, has benefited from a multi million pound refinancing which sees Yorkshire Bank more than double the facilities it makes available to the business.

The bank’s Corporate & Structured Finance team in Birmingham is providing the additional funding to allow Traveljigsaw’s private equity backer ISIS Equity Partners (ISIS) to realise part of its investment and provide the company with additional funds for growth.

Both Yorkshire Bank and ISIS first invested in Traveljigsaw when they supported a management buy-out in June 2008. Yorkshire Bank provided a £8m funding package. The deal gave control to the ex-Airtours team who had founded the business four years earlier and provided an exit for the original investor, MyTravel founder David Crossland who had provided the start-up capital.

Traveljigsaw is now one of Europe’s largest independent car rental agents, offering customers a single source for car hire via an on-line booking service and a UK-based multi-lingual call centre.  The business has relationships with all major car rental operators and offers car hire to customers in 27 different countries, covering some 90 different destination countries. 

Yorkshire Bank has supported ISIS on a number of deals over the past three years. It also backed ISIS’s investment in online holiday business On the Beach in 2007 and in highways services company Carnell Support Services in 2008.

Ian Mansell and Ian Howey led the deal for Yorkshire Bank. Ian Howey, area director with the bank’s Corporate & Structured Finance team in Birmingham, said: “Traveljigsaw’s experienced management team, together with ISIS’s knowledge of the sector, have helped the business to achieve strong growth in both turnover and profits. The new funding package reflects the phenomenal growth that the management team has achieved and provides Traveljigsaw with the funds to support its ongoing expansion.”