Spanish firm buys Newmarket International for $500m

Company’s headquarters, employees, management team will remain in Portsmouth

Amadeus, an international Spain-based travel technology company, has announced plans to acquire the parent company of Portsmouth-based Newmarket International for $500 million.

Newmarket, owned by NMTI Holdings, is a provider of cloud-based technology solutions for the hotel market. It has some 430 employees worldwide and 22,000 customers in 154 countries.

Amadeus, which is based in Madrid, said it will be maintaining Newmarket’s New Hampshire headquarters and its complete staff, Newmarket’s entire management team, headed by Sean O'Neill, chairman of the firm, and Jeff Hiscox, president and CEO.

Hiscox called the acquisition “great news for both our customers and employees,” adding: “We have built a profitable and successful business that is the undisputed leader in our market segment and by joining Amadeus we have the ideal platform to take that success to the next level and extend our leadership in hotel IT solutions”.

Newmarket, which expects to see revenues of $110 million in 2013, will be operated as a stand-alone business within Amadeus’ Global Hotel Group, the company said.

In the announcement, Amadeus said it expects to finalize the acquisition, pending regulatory approval, in the first quarter of 2014.

Amadeus said the deal for Newmarket will strengthen its hotel platforms and allow them to tap into Newmarket’s worldwide clients.

According to Jeff Edwards, who heads the Global Hotels Group at Amadeus, “We intend to leverage the Newmarket business and proven execution abilities to expand the Amadeus Hotel offering to hotels worldwide. The combination of Newmarket’s expertise and exceptional customer service, with Amadeus’ scale and global reach will enable us to deliver a comprehensive set of integrated high value products and services to the hotel industry.”

Amadeus said it will finance the acquisition through a five-year, $500 million loan with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and the Royal Bank of Scotland.