Friends Globe forms JV with UK firm

Friends Globe Travel Ltd (FGTL), a leading corporate travel company, is getting into a joint venture with the $11 billion UK-based travel company major, which will invest Rs 80 crore in the new venture. FGTL plans to use the capital to increase the number of its locations from 11 to 26 in six months.

"This venture will allow us to increase our presence in India and become India's most networked travel company. We will invest in both the front end and back end of our business to bring down the turnaround time of booking airline tickets for our corporate clients," said Rahul Nath, country manager and CEO, FGTL, who refused to divulge details about the name of the collaborator.

The JV will retain FGTL's name and management for three years and use the foreign company's name as a brand extension.

However, in the next two to three years it is considering incorporating the collaborator's name in to the JV following which FGTL's name will become a brand.

The International Tourism Association estimates the Indian corporate travel industry to be around Rs 6,500 crore of which FGTL has 6-7 per cent share of the market.

"We are aiming to capture 20 per cent of the corporate travel market by December, 2006. The corporate travel market should be worth around Rs 9,000 crore by then," added Nath.

FGTL services about 450 corporations and expects to consolidate its position using the Rs 80 crore infusion.

"A lot of MNCs are going in for world-wide tie ups with a single vendor, we will now be able to leverage our relationship with the foreign company to rope in their existing clients who have an Indian presence," explained Nath.

FGTL also has plans to increase the number of its employees from 500 to 900 by the end of this fiscal.

Currently, 60 per cent of its business comes from software companies and the rest from FMCG, telecom, manufacturing, banking and other industries. More than 75 per cent of them travel internationally to the US, Europe, Middle-East, Australia and China with the rest travellers using domestic circuit services.