Journey Beyond’s US owner ready to hop off, seeks $600m-plus payday

afr.com:

Journey Beyond, owner of “experiential” tourism assets like The Ghan train and Cruise Whitsundays, is back on the auction block less than two years after it changed hands.

Street Talk can reveal Journey Beyond’s American private equity-backed owner, Hornblower Group, has tasked investment UBS to run a buyer search. It has also tapped law firm Jones Day for counsel on the deal.

California-based Hornblower Group, which has been owned by New York private equity investor Crestview Partners since 2018, paid circa $600 million to buy Journey Beyond in January 2022. The seller was local buyout big-wig Quadrant Private Equity, whose dealmaker Marcus Darville spearheaded the firm’s investment in Great Southern Rail – owner of The Ghan and Indian Pacific rail tourism businesses – in 2016.

At the time of the sale to Hornblower, The Ghan and Outback Spirit spoke for roughly 75 per cent of overall group earnings. SBS

Sources said Hornblower/Crestview were hanging up the for-sale sign at Journey Beyond at an opportune time. The tourism outfit’s customer numbers – and hence financials – are expected to have bounced back to pre-COVID levels. And so, despite the short period of ownership, the seller seeking a deal value significantly higher than its $600 million purchase price.

It is understood UBS was designing the sale process to appeal to private equity funds, but also to core-plus infrastructure investors. Banks well-placed to land buy-side advisory roles include Jefferies, whose local boss Michael Stock ran the sell-side process for Journey Beyond on Quadrant’s behalf.

Journey Beyond is still headquartered in Adelaide. It has grown from its initial assets, the Australian transcontinental Ghan and Indian Pacific trains, to include