Siris, Elliott Agree to Acquire Travelport for $4.4 Billion

(Bloomberg) -- Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. and Siris Capital agreed to buy Travelport Worldwide Ltd. in a deal valuing the company at $4.4 billion, nine months after Singer bought a stake and urged management to consider a sale.

Travelport investors would get $15.75 a share in cash, the Langley, England-based company said Monday. That’s 2.3 percent more than the stock’s Friday closing price in the U.S. Elliott is making the bid through private-equity arm Evergreen Coast Capital. The price includes the assumption of about $2 billion of debt.

While the company’s board has approved the transaction unanimously, Travelport has the right to actively seek an alternative buyer through Jan. 23.

Travelport is one of three large global distribution systems for the travel industry, alongside Sabre Corp. and Amadeus IT Group SA. It provides distribution, technology and payments solutions for travel and tourism companies.

Morgan Stanley and UBS advised Travelport. Siris and Evergreen got debt financing from BofA Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank AG, Macquarie Capital, Credit Suisse and Barclays. LionTree, Deutsche Bank, Macquarie and Barclays advised Siris.

--With assistance from Corinne Gretler.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Mulier in Geneva at tmulier@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net

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