Western & Oriental has sold its loss-making tour operations for £1 million.
The luxury travel brands, which include W&O, Regent Holidays and key2holidays, are being bought by Raj Kumar, a director of the company.
He has already lent the business £800,000 so will pay a further £200,000 in cash. The deal includes forward bookings worth £3.845 million.
All travel business staff, including Kerry Golds, who becomes managing director of W&O Travel, will transfer to the new owner.
W&O’s travel business reported a loss from continuing operations of £6.1 million on revenues of £32.9 million for the year ended September 30, 2010.
Properties operated by the travel business will be taken on by Kumar’s Furze International – one of two bidders for the tour operations – as well as a four year lease of the group’s London head office.
“As such it is expected that the company will not have any redundancy or other employee costs relating to this transaction,” a statement said.
Golds said: “This is great news for W&O Travel, we will be investing in growing the business, particularly in the trade.
“We have a strong executive management team of Sarah Mason, Andrew Marshall, Steve O’Loughlin and some of the best specialists in the business.
“Agents can book with complete confidence and rely on the same specialist service they’ve always had from W&O Travel.”
The sale will enable Western & Oriental to concentrate on its events business which reported a £700,000 profit last year on revenues of £13.8 million.