Goodman sells TV Travel for £75m

LEISURE entrepreneur Harry Goodman has sold his latest venture, TV Travel Group, to an American company in a deal valuing it at almost £75m.

Goodman's previous holiday company, International Leisure Group, formerly known as Intasun, collapsed in 1991 with debts of £400m.

USA Networks, which owns the world's largest home shopping channel and has controlling stakes in Expedia and Ticketmaster, is paying £74.6m for TV Travel Group.

A £300m valuation was being suggested when the company was considering a stock market flotation just over a year ago. Goodman and his partner Denis Strauss owned 12.5% of the company, as did Swiss travel group Kuoni.

The largest shareholder was Barclays Private Equity, which paid £20m for a 38% stake in 1999 and will now receive £28.3m. Telewest, which inherited a 37% stake through its takeover of Flextech, had invested £21.3m in the business and will receive £27.6m.

TV Travel chief executive Stephen Welton said the group's 900 employees in London and Bromley, Kent, were secure in their jobs. He added: 'Indeed, we will almost certainly be expanding. USA Networks already has the biggest internet and TV home shopping business and wants to do the same with travel. We have moved from a group of various shareholders to one with a single purpose.'

TV Travel was set up in 1998 and runs three TV channels in the UK and Germany. Sales last year were £165m.