Sabre Corp. President/CEO Tom Klein assured Abacus International’s customers, especially travel trade clients, that they will continue to receive the same level of service amid his company’s acquisition of Abacus.
Concurrent with the acquisition, Sabre forged new long-term distribution agreements with the 11 airline owners of Abacus. Customers, therefore, will “continue to receive the same level of content, market fares, and marketing support that they have today,” said Klein in a conference call yesterday.
Sabre recently announced that it will buy the remaining 65% of Abacus, which is held by a consortium of 11 Asian airlines, for USD411 million. Sabre has been a stakeholder of Abacus since 1998 and, before the announcement, controlled 35% of the company.
Sabre and Abacus have built a close relationship even before the announcement of the acquisition, with the former a supplier of the latter. “Abacus currently provides a broad set of services to its customers using a base of Sabre technology for the large majority of core functions to market, distribute, sell and service travel in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Greg Webb, president of Sabre Travel Network, in a statement.
“Because our technology has been deeply embedded in the Abacus offerings for many years, we expect the technology integration to be relatively straight-forward as compared to typical acquisitions,” Klein explained in the conference call.
Klein also said that customers may even benefit from the “elimination of the bureaucracy in decision-making processes that results from a joint-venture structure” and “significantly ramped up sales and account management capabilities” that the acquisition will provide.
Abacus will operate as a region of Sabre Travel Network, and Sabre expects its expanded Asia-Pacific direct presence will benefit Sabre Airline Solutions and Sabre Hospitality Solutions, which already provide mission-critical support to 78 airlines and thousands of hotels throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2015.