Helloworld has bought another 5 per cent of rival Webjet, lifting its stake to about 10 per cent.
Fund manager sources said it paid north of 85¢ a share, well above the 80¢ per share that Ben Gray’s BGH Capital and fellow bidder Gary Weiss had tabled a week earlier. Webjet shares closed at 89¢ apiece.
Helloworld now owns a similar number of shares as the BGH and Weiss consortium, which has 10.76 per cent and had its $314 million non-binding indicative offer rejected by Webjet’s board on Friday morning. In refusing it due diligence, Webjet’s board said BGH’s bid “materially undervalues” the company and raised concerns about its structure.
Despite the recent shopping, Helloworld CEO Andrew Burnes hadn’t submitted a bid for Webjet as of noon on Sunday, with his next move remaining unclear. In the opposite camp, BGH and Weiss have avoided buying any shares above the 80¢ mark to boost their stake in Webjet.
M&A interest in Webjet comes eight months after it was demerged to focus on consumer-focused online travel bookings from the Web Travel Group, which retained the corporate travel business. Web Travel Group had delivered record underlying net profit after tax of $128.4 million for the year ending March 2024 as travel bounced back to pre-COVID levels. Former Virgin executive Katrina Barry was appointed the chief executive of Webjet.
It debuted on the ASX above the $1 mark, but was trading in the 40¢ range when Helloworld and BGH/Weiss began buying shares in late April, as customers pulled back discretionary spending and airline ticket prices fell.
Webjet has told shareholders the profits are expected to be flat for the 2025 financial year, despite its ambitious growth pitch of doubling total transaction value to $3.2 billion-plus in five years.
