Worldchoice shareholders have voted in favour of TTA Worldchoice – the largest UK travel agency consortium.
Shareholders gave the green light to the £4.4 million merger of Worldchoice and the Travel Trust Association with a 99.9% vote in favour at an extraordinary general meeting today. Minimum approval of 75% of shareholders was needed in favour for the vote to succeed.
TTA Worldchoice will be made up of 900 travel agencies and will be established by October 16 following court approval, expected at the end of this month.
The new company will be run as a division of the TTA Group, with Worldchoice operating its own profit and loss account.
Worldchoice shareholders will receive 275p per share as a result of TTA’s £4.4 million offer. Around 50 shareholders with 10,000 shares will receive £27,500, while a small number of less than 15 shareholders will benefit from payments of more than £100,000.
The deal also establishes a members retention trust fund for Worldchoice members who stay with the organisation for five years, with the potential to earn around £20,000 according to what support they give the consortium based on a points system.The fund is likely to be worth around £1.3 million.
Worldchoice is retaining its Peterborough head office and there are no staff redundancies planned. Chairman Colin Heal said: “There might be some slight change in the roles where there is duplication.”