Kuoni tour operations eyed by Emirates group

Dubai-based dnata understood to be looking at buying Kuoni's tour operations after the Swiss group hoisted the "for sale" sign

 An arm of Middle Eastern airline Emirates is eyeing a bid for the tour operations of luxury travel company Kuoni.

Dubai’s dnata is among a handful of prospective suitors who have shown an early interest in bidding for the Kuoni business, which specialises in high-end holidays to places including the famous Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. The company has 35 branded travel agent shops in Britain, including eight concessions in John Lewis department stores.

Swiss-based Kuoni is looking to get out of the consumer travel industry amid fierce competition from online comparison sites and budget airlines. It is planning to concentrate on government travel and business services. The tour operating business includes services in Hong Kong, India, Belgium, Switzerland and the Nordics. It is not clear whether interest from dnata and several private equity firms, is for all the operations or whether they intend to cherry-pick parts.

 ^{Kuoni's most popular destination is to the Maldives where it also offers the opportunity to stay in the Rangali underwater hotel}

A Kuoni group spokesman said that there had been expressions of interest and the sale was progressing well but declined to comment on specific names. Kuoni’s tour business reported a pre-tax loss of £3.8m for the year ending 2013, but is now understood to be profitable.

Dubai’s dnata, which employs 23,000 people, has shown a growing interest for UK tour operators. Last year it bought online travel agent netflights.com and Pure Luxury from Thomas Cook for $74m and added Travel 2 parent Stella Travel Services just a couple months later. dnata said at the time that it had “plans for extensive growth”.

The sale of the Kuoni comes after a rash of travel deals including the sale of Riviera Travel, Scott Dunn, Sykes Cottages and Travel Counsellors.

Dnata did not return a request for comment. The dnata name originated as an acronym for the Dubai National Air Travel Agency.