Pre-Christmas bid in air at ebookers

13 April 2012

EBOOKERS founder Dinesh Dhamija - who will pocket £80m if he sells the firm - could be booking himself a celebratory New Year break.

Finance chief Michael Healy confirmed that a takeover of the online travel firm before Christmas is a distinct possibility.

The firm has been linked to trade and financial buyers since the summer, with private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital the latest to be named.

Healy said: 'You would hope that everything could be resolved or to some extent clarified by Christmas.' 'We've made considerable progress since September, and I think everyone's mindset is to get into a New Year fully refreshed,' he added.

Dhamija owns 41.5% of ebookers' shares, which closed down 6½p at 285½p.

Ebookers unveiled reduced third-quarter losses, down to £1.93m in the three months to September from £6.43m in the previous quarter. Sales rose 17% to £159m.

The firm, which employs 900 in India, cut costs this year by cutting 360 UK staff. No dividend was declared.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in