[London, ENGLAND] European travel specialist
ebookers.com
announced Monday that a combination of good results and
extra funding that caused a sharp upward correction
in its share price.
ebookers.com reported a massive second quarter 2000
sales hike. Q2 sales were $30 million, an
increase of 839 percent compared to Q2 1999
($3.3 million).
At the same time, ebookers.com’s chief executive and
two other people have invested $6.25 million in the
company to tide it over until it can raise an additional
$39 million to finance its negative cash flow. The sum
needed is significantly lower than the market expected.
There now seems to be no imminent danger of
ebooker collapsing, as was suggested in the press
(not here) some weeks ago. Its cash balance at
June 30 was $22.9 million, $10 million less than
at the end of the first quarter, but sufficient to
keep the company afloat until the final round of
financing is in place.
ebookers.com claims that positive cash-flow could
occur as early as Q4 2001 — much earlier than the
market expectation of 2003.
Chief Executive Dinesh Dhamija called the results
“excellent” and said they suggested a very rosy
future for the company.
“ebookers.com is one of the only genuinely pan-European
business-to-consumer Internet companies. It has high
sales, high gross profit margins and high average
transaction values that are way ahead of key competitors,”
claimed Dhamija.
ebookers.com operates in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
and the U.K.
Recently, it has pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy which
has enabled its rapid growth, securing a huge increase in
site visits. In Q2, it had over 5.6 million visitors,
up 40 percent on the first quarter.
With the increase in site visits has come an increase
in business, with passenger numbers in the half year
up to over 180,000, up from just 9,600 in the same period
in 1999. Moreover, ebookers says it leads the industry
in gross profit margins per booking — at 12 percent of
reported sales.
ebookers says it is already in “advanced negotiations”
with several potential investors and strategic partners,
and fully expects to secure the necessary $39 million by
the end of the year.
