Smurfit to invest €4 million in CNG travel group ahead of flotation

FORMER Jefferson Smurfit chief executive Michael Smurfit is to invest €4 million in the Kenmare-based CNG Travel Group, which will float on London's Alternative Investment Market next month.

Dr Smurfit will also take up a position as non-executive director of the online reservation software developer, the company said yesterday. He will be joined on the board by Ralph Manaker, co-president of WorldTravel BTI, one of the world's largest travel management companies that recorded sales of €3 billion last year.

CNG chief executive Finbarr Power said the company was in the final stages of preparing its flotation and the addition of Dr Smurfit and Mr Manaker to the board would strengthen the company and add to its ambitions.

Mr Power also said that the company would shortly appoint one more high-profile non-executive director but that this would take place after the flotation, which is scheduled for the first week in May.

CNG hopes to raise €65m from the float and will be valued at up to €250m. The company's hotel room reservation software is in use by four of the top five corporate travel agents in America and processed sales worth €450m last year. Mr Power hopes to grow this figure to €580m this year.

Dr Smurfit said he was looking forward to helping CNG to fulfil its potential, which he described as considerable: "CNG has precisely the right technology, business model and influence in the corporate and leisure travel industry to become a significant player in this rapidly developing sector.

Mr Manaker said he was also convinced that CNG would become a major player. Before his involvement with WorldTravel BTI, he was in charge of US Travel Systems, a travel agency network that made over 50 acquisitions between 1986 and 1994, when it was itself taken over by electronics giant Electronic Data Systems.

CNG employs 55 people at its headquarters in Kenmare and another 60 in New York. It plans to take on a further 20 people in Kenmare. Mr Power has said he wants CNG to become a billion-dollar business within 18 months and could take a full listing on the London Stock Exchange or New York's Nasdaq in due course.