Transactions

Liberty Corporate Finance is delighted to announce they have advised the management team of Inside Travel Group, a leading cultural adventures brand specialising in Asia, on its acquisition by Piper, a leading specialist investor in consumer brands.

Cool Japan Fund, Japan’s sovereign wealth fund focused on investing in businesses that promote Japanese Culture around the world, is investing alongside Piper. The transaction provides an exit for Blandford Capital, who invested in the company 2022.

The business was founded in 2000 as InsideJapan Tours by Simon King and Alastair Donnelly as a specialist inbound Japan travel brand. Having spent three years living in Japan, exploring the food, the classic sights, traditional and pop culture (and singing a lot of karaoke), they returned to the UK with a passion for the country, a desire to share that with as many people as possible and the key insight that existing tour operator offerings were overly cosseted and failed to fully engage with the everyday culture.

ITG has since launched the InsideAsia brand and become known as an expert in Asia more broadly, arranging trips for clients to South Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malysia and Borneo among others. ITG is now seen as the thought leader in ‘Asian cultural adventures’, differentiating themselves with their ‘get beneath the surface’ ethos. The market for travellers into Asia from the US, UK and Australia is forecast to grow rapidly, reaching £6.3bn by 2026.

The investment will help the business maintain its leading position as the Asian specialist and enable the business to further drive brand awareness across the UK, US and Australia.

In a joint statement, co-founders Simon King and Alastair Donnelly commented “For any business founders embarking on a sale process is daunting and comes with a high level of risk. We were recommended Dan and his team at Liberty as great people to have on our side to help ensure the final deal was right for us, was fair and delivered on our ambitions for ourselves and our wider management team. Dan was straight-talking, clear in his advice and 100% in our corner fighting for our interests. He helped us navigate the world of rollovers, reinvests, sweet equity, leaver provisions, warranties and all manner of other jargon with good humour and patience. He helped us understand where to give ground and where to dig our heels in. Importantly, the model the team built to show our current and future returns was both clear and accurate! It takes a team to deliver a successful transaction and Liberty also worked successfully with our chosen legal and financial advisors whenever required. With the transaction successfully completed we can say with conviction we made a great choice for management advisors and wouldn’t hesitate to appoint Dan to work with us again in future.