Acquisition of Intermèdes by Sparring Capital
Sparring Capital is organising the transmission of the Intermèdes Group (www.intermedes.com), alongside the founding CEO Michel Olivier and Jérôme Faucheur de Battisti.
Jérôme is 43 years old, a graduate of the ESSEC Business School and was previously General Manager of Homair Vacances. He will bring his extensive knowledge of tourism and the Internet to Intermèdes. He joins the Group as General Manager alongside Michel Olivier and becomes a significant shareholder of the Group.
Intermèdes was founded in 1994 by Michel Olivier and François Labbé and is now the leader in the cultural travel market, presenting the most comprehensive and diversified offer. As a specialist in travel accompanied by a lecturer, the company controls its entire offer, from design to direct multi-channel sales.
Buoyed by the loyalty of its customers, the quality of its scheduling and lecturers, as well as the Group’s development on specific themes, Intermèdes has experienced sustained growth for several years, with sales exceeding €30m for 2018, across all the Group’s brands (Intermèdes, Hémérys, Sentiers des Arts, Orients and Terre Entière).
In a market that is increasingly oriented towards the search for unique experiences and differentiated travel, Intermèdes intends to rely on the uniqueness of its offer in order to pursue its development. In particular, the Group aims to further enrich its range of products and services, expand its travel themes and accelerate the digital marketing of its offer.
Michel Olivier, Chairman of Intermèdes, said: “We created Intermèdes, convinced that the key to success would lie in a highly differentiated and broad offer in our segment, and direct distribution based on customer loyalty. 25 years on, the leading position acquired in this high-potential segment of “cultural travel” confirms our initial intuition. Sparring Capital’s team convinced us of its ability to support Intermèdes in a new phase of the company’s development, which will involve the implementation of a digital action plan and external growth operations, some of which have already been identified. The arrival of Jérôme, who brings us his experience in these areas, is an essential asset in the execution of this ambitious project.”
Jérôme Faucheur de Battisti said: “I’m happy to be joining the Intermèdes project and I really admire what has been achieved by Michel Olivier and his team since the company was founded. By uniting a community of highly committed enthusiasts around travel with a strong cultural content, Intermèdes has been able to create a thoroughly modern offer with strong potential. I’m keen to consolidate its leadership position and pursue this growth path, with the support of Michel and Sparring.”
Arnaud Leclercq, CEO of Sparring Capital, said: “The Intermèdes Group immediately won us over with the strength of its value proposition, which fully meets the new expectations of consumers looking for travel experiences off the beaten track. The transaction reflects Sparring Capital’s investment strategy, which is focused on majority “smidcap” transmission operations, which are often primary, alongside highly involved management teams with an acceleration project. We are pleased to support the Intermèdes Group, which will be able to count on our support.”
List of stakeholders:
Sparring Capital :
Arnaud Leclercq, Alexandre Beau, Léa Palas
Founders:
Michel Olivier, François Labbé
Manager :
Jérôme Faucheur de Battisti
Banks :
Caisse d’Epargne (Philippe de Oliveira, Maxime Moysan)
LCL (Yannick Simonnet)
BPVF (Franck Ambonati, Nicolas Advenard)
Legal advisors to the investors:
Allen Overy
Corporate : Romy Richter, Claudia di Paolo, Timothé Drezet
Fiscal : Charles del Valle
Financement : Jean-Christophe David, Adrien Repiquet
Financial advisors to the investors:
KPMG (Antoine Bernabeu, Bertrand Thouvenel)
Market study for the investors:
ID tourisme (Guillaume Cromer)
Advisors to the founders:
Financier : APM Management (Pierre-Yves Dargaud, Sébastien Dray)
Juridique : Valther Avocats (Bruno Fiacre)
Financial Vendor Due diligence:
RSM
Advisors to the manager:
Juridique : Cabinet Cohen (Serge Cohen)
Financier : Celeste Consulting (Jean-Philippe Roux)
Headhunter:
Cobalt Partners (Maelenn Natral, Valérie Pintiaux)
Legal advisor to the banks:
Volt (Alexandre Tron, Morgane Le Gallic)