Kale Consultants (Kale), a solutions provider to the travel and transportatation industry, today announced the acquisition of 100% stake in London-based Zero Octa - one of the largest and leading provider of airline revenue assurance, protection and audit services worldwide. Zero Octa recorded revenue of $6 million in calender year 2006, and has a client base of 30 airlines. "The acquisition is funded from internal accruals with a considerable amount to be paid over the next 30 months," said Vipul Jain, managing director, Kale Consultants. Third-party outsourcing for revenue management and accouting for airlines is a $100 million business with a potential to grow to $700 million in the coming few years. Post the acquisition of Zero Octa, "Kale is the unique position to capture a dominant marketshare," said Jain, adding: "We already have a 20-25% market share." For Kale, revenue management and accounting contributed to 75% of the company's overall turnover of $21 million prior to the acquisition. With Octa having 30 clients and Kale having close to 40 clients, there is a small overlap of clients, but Jain is not worried. "There is a tremendous opportunity to cross-sell and grow both the businesses. The impact will reflect in the topline and bottomline in the second quarter of the current financial year," said Jain who is targetting to cross the $30 million mark this fiscal. This is Kale's third domain-focused acquisition following the acquisition of travel solutions company Cognosys Software and of three products of Speedwing, the independent operating division of British Airways Plc. "We are keen on driving further consolidation among the third party services providers in the coming years," Jain said.
