Lastminute.com in £16m Med Hotels purchase

Lastminute.com has paid just over £16m for Med Hotels, a UK-based holiday reseller.

Med Hotels includes the Travel Bargains business. The price of £16.1m will be made up of £8m in cash - and the balance, which could increase depending on performance over the next few years, in new Lastminute.com shares.

Med Hotels is a profitable business which for the 12 months ending 31 October 2003 recorded revenues of £38.6m and a gross profit of £5.3m. It employs 112 staff in Woking and five overseas.

In a statement, Lastminute.com highlighted that the deal brings on board a company that mainly sells online, and that will make the Lastminute.com model of 'dynamic packaging' - whereby consumers can mix and match flights, accommodation, car rental and so on - better.

Brent Hoberman, Lastminute.com CEO, said the deal will also help the UK dot-com make the most of the trade relationships its Holiday Autos unit has in the UK and Germany.

Lastminute.com recently announced its first annual profits and the departure from a top operational role of co-founder Martha Lane Fox.