It follows yesterday’s announcement that SuperBreak, along with sister company LateRooms, had been sold to Malvern Enterprises – a new company set up for the purpose of the deal.

Cox & Kings, which only recently acquired LateRooms from Tui for £8.5 million, sold the business to Malvern for £20 million, while its 65.58%-owned subsidiary Holidaybreak sold SuperBreak for £9.25 million cash.

The proceeds have been used to pay off debt and come as Cox & Kings buys a 49% stake in Malvern for £6.37 million. The remaining 51% is owned by an undisclosed “reputed Europe-based private equity investor”.

SuperBreak’s Jane Atkins insisted it was “business as usual”, and told TTG the deal would mean little change for its trade partnerships. “We are absolutely 100% not becoming a B2C business,” she said.

“We want to grow the overall business – as long as it’s in a cost effective way. But we work the trade so hard, and we would never not work the trade really hard. We’ve got a field team of six – agents remain incredibly important to us.”

She added: “We will continue with our ongoing plans, developing the best range of experiential short breaks on offer through the trade.

“However, under the new company, we will have new investors, alongside Cox & Kings, that will allow us to share learnings and best practice, to accelerate these plans.”

A statement released by Cox & Kings suggested the move could see a new boost in the city-break market for both SuperBreak and LateRooms.

“The transaction will enable Malvern to independently follow its own strategic growth path in the underpenetrated city-breaks market within the online package-tour space,” it said.

“SuperBreak and LateRooms are likely to gain substantially from a unified management team under the strategic guidance of the private equity investor and [Cox & Kings].”