Kuoni

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Kuoni Reisen Holding AG

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN CH0003504856
founding 1906
Seat Zurich , Switzerland
management Zubin Karkaria
(Chairman of the Management Board )
Heinz Karrer
( Chairman of the Board of Directors )
Number of employees 11,621 (annual average 2013)
sales CHF 5.669 billion (2013)
Branch Travel company / tourism
Website www.kuoni.com

The Kuoni Group was founded in 1906 by Alfred Kuoni (1874–1943) in Zurich . Today it is an international travel company with headquarters in Zurich and at the SIX Swiss Exchange listed . The Kuoni Group is primarily active in the areas of vacation travel and incoming services . The business travel division was sold in December 2003, the European tour operator activities in autumn 2015. On February 8, 2008, it was announced that Edelweiss Air (Switzerland) will be sold to Swiss and will no longer belong to the Kuoni Group.

On June 27, 2017, Rewe announced that Kuoni Reisen AG will be renamed DER Touristik Suisse at the end of July 2017.

Internationally, the Kuoni Group operates under the following brands:

  • Scanditours : France
  • Celtic Tours : France
  • Vacances Fabuleuses : France
  • Special Traffic : Netherlands
  • Travel Keys : Netherlands

The sale of the tour operator business to the REWE Group

The negative market situation around Kuoni came to a head in 2014 when a drop in sales had to be accepted for the third time in a row and three of the four business segments performed worse than in the previous year in terms of operating profit (EBIT). On January 14, 2015, the initiation of a divestment program was communicated and the exit from the tour operator business announced. As of September 11, 2015, the sale of the European tour operator activities was completed to the German Rewe Group or its tourism division DER Touristik . Since then, Kuoni Switzerland and the Kuoni Group have gone their separate ways.

The responsible European competition authorities had approved the transaction without reservation. The purchase price was not published, but a goodwill impairment of over CHF 100 million was reported. In the first half of 2015, the areas designated by Kuoni as “discontinued operations” were charged with CHF 340 million. From now on Kuoni only wants to act as a service provider for the travel industry. On November 5, 2015, Zubin Karkaria, the previous head of the VFS visa division, was appointed CEO and successor to Peter Meier, who has held this position since March 2014.

owner

The 3'748'500 registered shares B (as of the end of 2013) traded on the Swiss stock exchange make up the majority of the share capital. However, there are also 1,249,500 bearer shares A with a nominal value of one fifth of the B shares, which are not traded on any stock exchange. The principle of one share equals one vote applies to both types of shares. Although the bearer shares A make up only 6.25% of the share capital, they represent 31.3% of the votes. As the owner of many A shares, the Kuoni + Hugentobler Foundation secures its influence. A board of trustees of this foundation is David Schnell , which its interests as a Board of Directors representing the Kuoni Group. At the Annual General Meeting of the Kuoni Group on April 25, 2014, a motion by zCapital was voted on to introduce a single share and thus abolish the privileges of holders of A shares. The motion was rejected, but received 48% of the vote.

The value of the exchange-traded share fell by 70% in the last 8 years between the outbreak of the financial crisis in mid-2007 and the conclusion of the sale of the travel division (September 14, 2015).

On February 2, 2016, the Swedish investment group EQT announced that it would acquire all of the publicly owned B registered shares of Kuoni Reisen Holding AG at a price of CHF 370. This corresponds to a purchase price of around CHF 1.4 billion.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Kuoni brief portrait ( memento of the original dated May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kuoni.ch
  2. [1]
  3. St. Galler Tagblatt, March 17, 2015 ( Memento from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  4. a b c balance sheet
  5. NZZ
  6. Handelszeitung
  7. Kuoni Homepage ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kuoni.com
  8. Kuoni Financial Report 2013 (English) ( Memento of the original dated May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kuoni.com
  9. Website of the asset manager zCapital
  10. Kuoni, AFG, NZZ - The New Power of Shareholders, Handelszeitung, No. 18, April 30, 2014, p. 24
  11. Swissquote
  12. EQT VII makes public takeover offer for Kuoni