GSK Stockmann comprehensively advised Voya, a digital platform that specialises in business trips, on selling the traveling business to Lufthansa City Center (LCC) as well as on starting a cooperation with the travel agency chain.
LCC is taking over Voya’s travel business – now under the name “Voya Travel” – that Voya had previously been managing independently. The closing already took place. In the future, Voya is going to focus on enhancing the cloud based Voya platform and on licensing of the relevant software to corporate customers and travel agencies. Lufthansa is becoming Voya’s fulfilment partner. Furthermore, the Voya platform and Voya technology will be implemented in all LCC travel agencies in Germany.
Selling the travel agency business and launching the cooperation, the business travel specialists are pursuing the goal of being the first travel management company to combine stationary and digital technology and to further expand their market leadership in the segment of business travel management for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The online business travel platform Voya, based in Hamburg, specialises in SMEs and acts as an interface between end customers and travel agencies. Founded in 2015, the company combines online travel bookings with personal service supported by machine learning on its end-to-end platform.
With more than 570 offices in 95 countries, Lufthansa City Center (LCC) is one of the world’s largest independent franchise systems in the travel agency market and, with 13,500 corporate customers, is the market leader in the small and medium-sized enterprise segment.
GSK Stockmann and a team led by the Berlin Partner Thomas Derlin comprehensively advised Voya GmbH on all legal aspects of the transaction, in particular on drafting and negotiating the contracts for the sale of the travel agency business by way of an asset deal as well as on the very complex license, fulfilment, service and other agreements. GSK Stockmann was able to combine its M&A expertise with its multidisciplinary skills in the IT/IP sector, as well as its sector-specific expertise in aviation and travel (as part of the “Mobility” sector).
Advisers of Voya GmbH:
GSK Stockmann: Thomas Derlin (Corporate/M&A, lead), Jörg Kahler (IP/IT), Philipp Kuhn (Employment), Petra Eckl, Dominik Berka (both Tax); Associates: Benedikt Kreuder (Corporate/M&A), Martin Hossenfelder (IP/IT), Nicole Deparade (Emplyoment), Annika Abenhardt (Corporate/M&A)
