S8 managing director Andrew Laurie has moved to assure Harvey World Travel and Travel 2/4 staff that should either company be sold off it will create “opportunities for us all”.
In an email to staff he addressed a recent comment by Australian financial services business MFS, which owns the Stella Group of which Harvey World parent S8 is a part, that it will sell around half of the Stella Group to private equity firms and has commissioned financial services company UBS to assist in this.
However, Laurie said MFS will keep its “significant share holdings” and continue to support the companies, while allowing MFS to continue its core activities in the financial services industry.
Laurie added: “This will in no way affect the operations of the business other than creating opportunities for us all.
“MFS has recognized that Stella’s future is in leveraging it’s operations in Australia and New Zealand initially in markets where we are represented and then to expand in a global sense. In this effort, the UK is a very significant market.
“We have a number of plans underway to invest in and to develop both Harvey World Travel and Travel 2 Travel 4. One of the biggest opportunities for us lies in product.
“The Stella Group owns extensive holiday property interests, in particular in Australia. We will be focusing effort into the product area to try to add value to the front end of our businesses.”