NASSAU, Bahamas — A BISX-listed firm yesterday said it is aiming to grow Premier Travel’s annual revenues by between ten to 15 percent following the completion of its first-ever venture capital investment, The Tribune, one of The Bahamas’ leading daily newspapers, reported on October 3.
Julian Brown, Benchmark (Bahamas) president and chief executive, told Tribune Business it anticipated “doubling” the travel agency’s business volumes within two years following its $1.3m capital injection into the firm.
Confirming that its venture capital arm, Benchmark Ventures, has the option to convert its investment into equity ownership after two years, Mr Brown said the goal was to marry the traditional travel agency model with the “convenience” of an online booking platform.
Confirming that Benchmark has taken full management control of what it described as “the oldest Bahamian-owned and operated travel agency”, he added that Premier retains “a lot of growth potential” given the $1bn air travel market “in and out of The Bahamas”.
Mr Brown said an estimated $200m-$250m of that figure was captured by Bahamian-owned airlines, and by “innovating” Premier and educating persons on the “value” added by traditional agencies – especially during emergencies – the agency could be restored to former glories.
Revealing that Benchmark had been helping to “restructure” Premier for some 12 months prior to making its investment, Mr Brown said the long-term goal could be to take the firm public via an initial public offering (IPO) once it was ready.
“It’s representative of the economy. We’re a tourist destination,” Mr Brown told Tribune Business of Premier. “We think it’s a business that has very, very high growth potential. At the moment we’re restructuring, but don’t see why we can’t in the next two years double the volume of the business…” http://www.tribune242.com/news/2019/oct/03/premier-travel-15-growth-is-benchmark/
