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Travelex

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Travelex
Company typeDivision
IndustryFinancial Services
Founded1976 (1976)
FounderLloyd Dorfman
Headquarters
London, N1
United Kingdom
Key people
B. R. Shetty
(Finablr)
Tony D'Souza
(CEO)
ProductsForeign exchange
Revenue£729.5 mil *[1] (2018)
£23.1mil *[1] (2018)
Number of employees
7,627[1] (2018)
ParentFinablr
Websitetravelex-corporate.com
Footnotes / references
* Figures as declared in 2018[2]

Travelex is a foreign exchange company founded by Lloyd Dorfman and headquartered in London. Its main businesses are international payments, foreign currency exchange, issuing prepaid credit cards for use by travellers and global remittance.[3] It is the world's largest foreign exchange bureau.

History

Travelex was founded by Dorfman, and opened its first branch in central London in 1976.[3]

On 8 November 2000, it bought Thomas Cook's worldwide foreign exchange business for £440m, which significantly expanded its international operations.[4]

In February 2005, buy-out firm Apax Partners bought a majority stake in the company, but Dorfman retained 30% and continued to run the business.[5] Ian Meakins was CEO from 2006 to 2009, before becoming CEO of Ferguson plc (then known as Wolseley plc) .[6]

In early 2010, Travelex disclosed significant losses due to the interest payments on its large debts. It had pulled back from a stock market flotation the year before and said that it was "considering a range of potential financing structures".[7] Later that year it sold its card programme management division to MasterCard for £290 million to help reduce its debts.[8]

Travelex sponsored the National Theatre's discounted ticket scheme between 2003 and 2018.[9] In 2010 Lloyd Dorfman gave the theatre £10m, its biggest ever donation. Following redevelopment in 2013, the Cottesloe Theatre was renamed the Dorfman Theatre.

On 5 July 2011, Travelex sold its Global Business Payments division to Western Union for £606 million.[10]

By March 2014, Travelex had operations in 27 countries and more than 1,500 stores.[11]

In 2014, Apax Partners sold its majority stake of 51% to UAE-based Indian businessman B. R. Shetty valuing the company at approx £1bn. Shetty also owned UAE Exchange, a UAE-based money transfer business. The acquisition was supported by Abu Dhabi-based investment vehicle Centurion and completed in January 2015.[12][13]

In May 2019, Travelex, UAE Exchange and a number of other financial service businesses operated by B. R. Shetty were placed into a new holding company called Finablr, prior to an IPO on the London Stock Exchange that took place on 15 May that year.[14]

Mid 2019, Finablr began co-branding the businesses within its estate.

On 5 May 2020, despite remaining a Finablr-owned business, co-branding of the chain introduced in mid-2019 has been removed from its online presence.

On 26 May 2020, Travelex announced a wave of redundancies taking place imminently citing the Coronavirus pandemic.[15] The situation is likely to have been severely impacted additionally by its own issues within the Group including, but not limited, to the cyberattack of 31 Dec 2019 and ongoing serious fraud allegations at its parent business, Finablr. CEO Tony D'Souza said:

"While we remain unsure about what the future holds for Travelex, we know that we need to do everything we can in order to give the business the best chance of long-term viability. Sadly, this means that we anticipate that there will be a reduction in the number of roles, and therefore employees, from several teams across our global business"

Cyberattack and ransom demands

On 31 December 2019, Travelex took its UK and international websites and mobile apps offline following a reported cyberattack,[16] an action also affecting a number of large third parties to whom Travelex provide a white-labelled service,[17] including the online travel money services of supermarket chains such as Tesco and Sainsbury's.[18][19]

On 7 January 2020, it was revealed that the entire company was being held to ransom by hackers. The hackers demanded payment in exchange for either restoration of IT systems or the preservation of customer data. It was understood that a deadline of seven days payment was set by the cybercriminals.[20] The company was criticised by security researcher Kevin Beaumont who said, "The public response from Travelex has been shockingly bad."[21] As of 12 January 2020, the services remained offline.[22]

The criminals had demanded £4.6 million ($6 million) in ransom from Travelex after infecting its network with Sodinokibi ransomware. They claimed to have copied more than 5 GB of users' personal data. Travelex had previously been warned that it was running vulnerable Pulse Secure virtual private networking (VPN) servers.[23][24][22]

On 13 January, the company issued a formal statement on the resumption of services and promised that a "recovery roadmap" would be issued later in the week. It stated that the business had continued to trade throughout January, with in-store services and ATMs available, and reiterated that there had been no evidence of loss of customer data.[25][26]

Despite the gradual restoration of services taking place, white-labelled online travel money services remained offline as of 13 January.[27]

On 16 January, the company announced that it had managed to restore the automated order placement used by several UK high street banks and that it would relaunch its international money transfer service by the end of the month.[28]

On 17 January, boss Tony D'Souza said, in a video message on a back-up website, that the IT system used by in-store staff was working again. There was no statement on when the firm's main UK or international consumer websites or mobile apps would be returned to service.[29]

As of early February, a number of the company's own websites including its main consumer website[30], and a number of its banking partners remained offline[31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] , and no further updates had been offered, with some of its commercial partners apparently considering their options[38]. Meanwhile the company's Australian and United Arab Emirates websites display errors.[39] [40]

On 9 April 2020, it was reported that Travelex had paid the cyberattack ransom fee of $2.3 million to the hackers in order to restore their systems. While paying the ransomware fee may have restored the Travelex network, for those whose data was potentially compromised, they are stuck in limbo and no detail of this possible breach has been made available.[41][42]

Finablr difficulties

On 12 March 2020, Finablr, of which Travelex is a part, announced that it was taking steps to assess accurately its current liquidity and cashflow position,[43] with shares trading at circa 7 pence, down 97% from 11 December 2019 when their value peaked at 215 pence.[44]

On 16 March 2020, the business was suspended from the London Stock Exchange as it announced it was in danger of collapse having identified circa $100m (£81m) of undisclosed financing, which meant it no longer had any certainty over its financial position. Simultaneously, Promoth Manghat, Group CEO left the business[45][46]. The business also stated that it was no longer able to provide certain payment processing services, however failed to address what services this entailed. Administrators Kroll were appointed to carry out an independent investigation into its finances.[47]

On 16 March 2020, sister business UAE Exchange suspended all new transactions citing "certain operational challenges" in an emailed statement.[48]

On 17 March 2020, Finablr, of which Travelex is a part, announced that it has engaged an accountancy firm to undertake rapid contingency planning for a potential insolvency appointment,[49] with administration likely later in the week.[50]

On 18 March 2020, Finablr, of which Travelex is a part, announced that its UAE Exchange division had been taken over by the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates with immediate effect. The Central Bank also stated that it had commenced an examination of the business in order to verify its compliance with laws and regulations in the region.[51]

On 29 March 2020, EY (Ernst & Young) resigned as auditor of the group business citing a number of concerns relating to board composition and financial governance.[52]

On 9 April 2020, shares in Finablr, of which Travelex is a part, were suspended from the London Stock Exchange. The business announced the resignation of Promoth Manghat as Finablr chief executive with immediate effect the same day, as well as the appointments of administrators Kroll and Houlihan Lokey to carry out an independent investigation into the group's finances. Among other localised authorities the UK's Financial Conduct Authority and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates are also investigating the business's finances.[53]

On 22 April 2020, Travelex announced that it had placed itself up for sale with immediate effect and was working with administrators PwC on the sale process. The business stated that it had "communicated this intention to Finablr".[54][55]

During April 2020, most global operations of Finablr of which Travelex is a part, were suspended in their entirety with Travelex being an exception continuing to provide a basic service. The group's other fascias UAE Exchange, Xpress Money, TimesofMoney, Remit2India, Unimoni and Ditto (which had ceased previously) all display suspension notices on their respective websites:

"[division name] is temporarily unavailable for undertaking transactions. We regret the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding and cooperation as we endeavour to restore the service"

On 30 April 2020, Finablr announced previously-undeclared debts of around $1.3 billion had been identified by Houlihan Lokey and Kroll as part of their investigations, adding that it:

"cannot exclude the possibility that some of the proceeds of these borrowings may have been used for purposes outside of the Finablr Group"

[56][57]

Subsidiaries

  • Travelex Holdings Limited
  • Travelex Europe Limited
  • Travelex Limited
  • Travelex UK Limited
  • Travelex Agency Services Limited
  • Travelex Currency Services Limited
  • Travelex Italia Limited
  • Travelex Banknotes Limited
  • Travelex Deutschland Limited
  • Travelex Central Services Limited
  • Travelex SA / NV (Belgium)
  • Travelex Czech Republic as
  • Travelex NV (Netherlands)
  • Travelex Switzerland AG
  • Autobahn-Raststatte Basel Nord AG
  • Travelex Cloud Services Limited
  • Travelex India Private Limited
  • Travelex Financing PLC
  • Travelex Bahrain WLL
  • Travelex & Co. LLC (Oman)
  • Travelex Qatar
  • Travelex Emirates LLC (UAE)
  • Travelex Retail Nigeria Limited
  • Travelex Japan KK
  • Travelex Financial Services NZ Limited
  • Travelex Malaysia SDN. BHD
  • Travelex Holding (S) Pte Limited (Singapore)
  • Travelex Holding (HK) Limited
  • Travelex Group Investments Limited (UK)
  • Travelex Australia Holdings Pty Limited
  • Travelex Limited (Australia)
  • Travelex Doviz Ticaret Anonim Sirketi
  • Travelex Ankara Doviz Ticareti A.S.
  • Travelex America Holdings, Inc.
  • Travelex America, Inc.
  • Travelex NY, Inc. (US)
  • Travelex Curency Services, Inc. (US)
  • Travelex Canada Limited
  • Confidence Corretora de Cambio S.A.
  • Confidence Turismo S.A.

[58]

References

  1. ^ a b c Investegate |Travelex Financing Announcements | Travelex Financing: Annual Report 31 December 2018
  2. ^ Simeon Kerr (30 April 2020). "Finablr says debt may be 4 times higher than reported". Financial Times London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  3. ^ a b Travelex Group information on official website, accessed 5 November 2012. Archived 19 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ The Telegraph (9 November 2000). "Thomas Cook cheques arm sold for £440m". Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  5. ^ "Travelex boss sells £260m stake". The Guardian. February 28, 2005. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
  6. ^ Richard Blackden (23 May 2009). "Travelex founder takes charge again". The Telegraph. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  7. ^ "Travelex in race to sort out huge debt". thisismoney.co.uk. 29 August 2010. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
  8. ^ Wilson, Harry (9 December 2010). "MasterCard buys Travelex division for £290m". London: The Telegraph.
  9. ^ Brown, Mark "National Theatre's Cottesloe venue to be renamed after £10m donor" The Guardian 28 October 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  10. ^ "Western Union to Acquire Travelex Global Business Payments". Businesswire. July 5, 2011.
  11. ^ Travelex. "Travelex Corporate Presentation" (PDF). 2014-03. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
  12. ^ "Travelex shelves IPO during sale talks with UAE buyer". The Telegraph. May 22, 2014.
  13. ^ "Travelex". www.travelex-corporate.com.
  14. ^ "UAE's Finablr slumps below IPO price in London market debut". Reuters. 15 May 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  15. ^ "Travelex announces restructuring plans" (PDF). Travelex. May 26, 2020.
  16. ^ "Travelex site taken offline after cyber attack". BBC News. Jan 2, 2020.
  17. ^ "Bank currency services hit by Travelex site attack". BBC News. Jan 3, 2020.
  18. ^ ""Travel Money - Exchange Rate" (Archived from the original on 11/01/20". Sainsbury's Bank. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  19. ^ Murphy, Ian (January 3, 2020). "Travelex ransomware attack hits travellers -".
  20. ^ Ilascu, Ionut (January 6, 2020). "Sodinokibi Ransomware Hits Travelex, Demands $3 Million" – via www.bleepingcomputer.com.
  21. ^ Tidy, Joe (January 7, 2020). "Travelex being held to ransom by hackers" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  22. ^ a b Chan, Jonathan (January 12, 2020). "The five: ransomware attacks" – via www.theguardian.com.
  23. ^ Kundaliya, Dev (January 7, 2020). "Cyber criminals demand $3 million in ransom from Travelex after infecting its network with Sodinokibi ransomware" – via www.computing.co.uk.
  24. ^ Goodwin, Bill (January 6, 2020). "Cyber gangsters demand payment from Travelex after Sodinokibi attack" – via wwww.computerweekly.com.
  25. ^ "Travelex". www.travelex-corporate.com.
  26. ^ "Foreign Exchange Company Travelex Systems Back Online; Customers Receive Refunds". currencyscoop.com.
  27. ^ "Travel cash services still out after Travelex hack". 2020-01-13. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
  28. ^ Travelex to relaunch some foreign money exchange after weeks-long blackout | News Shopper
  29. ^ Travelex boss breaks silence 17 days after cyber attack - BBC News
  30. ^ Travelex.com
  31. ^ Travelex: Bank currency services still offline after hack
  32. ^ Barclays Travel Money | Homepage
  33. ^ HSBC Travel Money | Homepage
  34. ^ NatWest Travel Money | Homepage
  35. ^ Sainsbury's Bank Travel Money | Homepage
  36. ^ Tesco Bank Travel Money | Homepage
  37. ^ Virgin Travel Money | Homepage
  38. ^ Banks shun Travelex as cyber-attack jitters linger | The Times
  39. ^ Travelex Australia | 502 Error
  40. ^ Travelex United Arab Emirates | Not Secure
  41. ^ Lawrence Abrams (9 April 2020). "Travelex Reportedly Paid $2.3 Million Ransom to Restore Operations". Bleeping Computer. Archived from the original on 9 April 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  42. ^ Anna Isaac (9 April 2020). "Travelex Paid Hackers Multimillion-Dollar Ransom Before Hitting New Obstacles". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 22 April 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  43. ^ "Operational Update and Independent Reviews - RNS - London Stock Exchange". www.londonstockexchange.com.
  44. ^ "FINABLR share interactive chart (FIN) - London Stock Exchange". www.londonstockexchange.com.
  45. ^ "Travelex owner Finablr in danger of collapse as shares suspended". cityam.com.
  46. ^ "Shares in Travelex owner Finablr are suspended as it warns it may go bust after undisclosed cheques are found". thisismoney.co.uk.
  47. ^ "Suspension of Listing, Trading Update, Directorate Change and Urgent Board Measures". londonstockexchange.com.
  48. ^ "UAE Exchange halts new transactions". gulfnews.com.
  49. ^ "potential insolvency appointment" – via londonstockexchange.com.
  50. ^ "Travelex owner Finablr on the brink of collapse as it appoints insolvency firm" – via standard.co.uk.
  51. ^ "UAE Central Bank to oversee UAE Exchange Centre". Gulf News. 18 March 2020. Archived from the original on 18 March 2020. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  52. ^ Daniel Thomas (30 March 2020). "EY quits as auditor for Travelex owner Finablr". Financial Times London. Archived from the original on 22 April 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  53. ^ Anna Menin (16 March 2020). "Travelex owner Finablr in danger of collapse as shares suspended". City AM. Archived from the original on 28 March 2020. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  54. ^ Travelex Financing Plc (22 April 2020). "Travelex Financing Plc Sale process" (PDF). Travelex. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  55. ^ Travelex Financing Plc (22 April 2020). "Travelex Financing Plc Sale process". Euronext Dublin. Archived from the original on 29 April 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  56. ^ Gulf News (1 May 2020). "UAE Exchange House's parent company now 'finds' $1 billion plus debt". Gulf News. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  57. ^ Finablr (30 April 2020). "Current indebtedness position". Euronext. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  58. ^ "Travelex group companies". travelex.co.uk.
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