Sabre's potential $500 million acquisition is still a possibility, CEO Tom Klein told analysts during its Q1 earnings call today.
When asked directly, Klein batted away the question.
"No we can't [give you an update] It's possible, it remains that way, and we will update if and when we have something to update."
Klein had said earlier on the call that some of the money raised from selling Travelocity to Expedia would be used for the possible acquisition, reminding analysts that this was not news.
The proposed acquisition is widely believed to be a move to buy up the 65% of Abacus International it does not own from the APAC-based airlines which own the stake.
Elsewhere, the Q1s came in on target, with the numbers of track for Sabre to meet its 2015 guidance. In the first quarter revenues came in at $710 million - up 6.6% on the same quarter last year - with adjusted EBITDA of $244 million - 15.3% up.
Within this, EMEA has performed well for the Travel Network unit, growing by 10% year-on-year compared with 2.7% overall. On the call Klein explained that this was driven not only by its entry into 13 new markets in Africa and the CIS states but also by growing its presence in mature markets such as Germany.
Sabre is also starting to see the benefits of last year's agency customer wins come through into the numbers.
The airline and hospitality solution business has had a busier few months. The hospitality unit signed Wyndham to use its SynXis central reservations system across its 7,500-strong portfolio of properties, significantly upgrading the deal it had in place to provide Wyndham's 4,500 North American properties with a property management system.
Klein added that this tie-up gave the unit "a credibility boost."
Its airline IT unit announced today a deal with LatAm Airlines Group. The significant move here is that the Brazilian member of the group - TAM Airlines - is migrating to Sabre's SabreSonic system so that all LatAm Group airlines are now on the same platform.
Sabre's win comes at the expense of Amadeus which loses TAM as an Altea customer.
LatAm Group will also get access to some of Sabre's tools for crew and airport management, flight scheduling and operations.
Another interesting mention on the call was the take-up by airlines of Sabre's Marketplace Analytics and its Customer Experience Manager products. Southwest Airlines and Aeroflot have joined BA and Cathay Pacific as users of the former, with Klein pointing out that this tool has upsell potential as it can be sold into airlines which are not SabreSonic users.
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