US private equity firm The Blackstone Group is reportedly planning to list online business Orbitz.com less than six months after taking private its parent company Travelport.

Published: 24 Jan 2007

US private equity firm The Blackstone Group is reportedly planning to list online business Orbitz.com less than six months after taking private its parent company Travelport.

According to Reuters, the IPO would represent the latest example of private equity firms seeking to cash out on companies they have acquired only recently. Travelport was formed last year when Cendant, a publicly traded travel and financial services conglomerate, split itself into four separate companies. Travelport was a division of US conglomerate Cendant, which bought Orbitz.com in November 2004 for $1.25bn, then sold it along with other businesses under the parent company Travelport, to Blackstone for $4.3bn last year.

Travelport’s business-to-consumer segment, which includes Orbitz and CheapTickets, reported net revenue of $193 million in the quarter that ended Sept. 30 — about 30 percent of Travelport’s total revenue during the period. A spokesman for Travelport declined to comment on the potential Orbitz offering.

The New York Times first reported on the Orbitz IPO plan on its site earlier this week.