The Carlyle Group and Cré dit Lyonnais Private Equity Announce Successful Exit from Egencia in a Trade Sale to IAC/InterActiveCorp

Paris, France – Private equity firms The Carlyle Group and Crédit Lyonnais Private Equity announced today that they have exited from their investment in Egencia, resulting in returns of over 30% IRR.

Egencia is a leading online business travel service in France, with headquarters in Paris and additional operations in Belgium and the United Kingdom. The company has been acquired in whole by IAC/InterActiveCorp, the parent company to Expedia and will become Expedia® Corporate Travel Europe.

The Carlyle Group and Crédit Lyonnais Private Equity first invested in Egencia in 2000 and 2001 respectively and co-led the company’s last financing round in 2003. The company now has over 500 corporate customers.

“We have always believed in Egencia’s business model, and the outstanding management team led by Jean-Pierre Remy. We have been impressed by their commitment to delivery and the results achieved since 2000. This is a great development for Egencia, as Expedia is the best partner to take the company forward and gives Jean-Pierre and his team the opportunity to take their business to a truly European scale as part of a global platform,” commented Vladimir Lasocki, Associate Director at The Carlyle Group in charge of the investment and member of the Supervisory Board of Egencia.

“Since its creation, Egencia has delivered consistent and outstanding growth quarter after quarter. Starting from scratch, it has gained a significant market share of the corporate travel market in little over three years, in a highly competitive and concentrated context, and a difficult economic situation. This tremendous success is the result of the combination of an ambitious project with a faultless execution by a great management team. We have consistently supported and funded Egencia, and are proud of their achievement,” added Fabien Prévost, member of the Supervisory Board of Egencia, and Senior Partner at Crédit Lyonnais Private Equity:

Jean-Pierre Remy, CEO and founder of Egencia said, “We have very much appreciated the steadfast support from The Carlyle Group and Crédit Lyonnais Private Equity all through the past years. As the only institutional seed investor in the company, Carlyle took the initial risk, and continued to support us ever since, committing to further rounds of investment in adverse market conditions and in particular in the face of 9/11, SARS and the Iraq war. Carlyle and Crédit Lyonnais Private Equity have been excellent partners.”

The Carlyle Group funded the investment in Egencia from its CEVP (Carlyle Europe Venture Partners) fund, which focuses on technology investments in Europe. This is the first CEVP exit in 2004.

Crédit Lyonnais Private Equity funded the investment in Egencia from two venture funds: Crédit Lyonnais Innovation 2 (French regulated mutual funds investing in innovative companies -FCPI), and Crédit Lyonnais Venture 1 (institutional fund).

The transaction is subject to shareholder’s approval and finalisation of contracts, and is expected to close in the next few weeks.

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