Ellerston Capital, led by Ashok Jacob, is set to buy the Leibovichs’ stake of about 12% in Luxury Escapes. The secondary sale values Adam Schwab’s travel booking platform at $525 million, as the Financial Review reported on 24 September 2026.
Ellerston is targeting a shareholding of at least 12% and gets one board seat. Because this is a secondary sale, the money goes to the selling shareholders and not to Luxury Escapes. Ellerston expects to more than double its money and to earn a 5 per cent dividend yield before it exits in two to three years.
What Luxury Escapes does
Adam Schwab founded Luxury Escapes in 2013 and is its CEO. The company is headquartered in Melbourne, has offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore, and has more than 9 million members. It sells limited-time hotel offers, cruise and tour products to consumers and, increasingly, to travel agents.
The company took its first external equity in late 2021 and early 2022, when Pier 12 Capital raised a $125 million fund to buy a stake in Lux Group. Ellerston’s purchase comes about four years after that first outside investment.
Its traction numbers are specific. One in two Australians travelling to the Maldives books through Luxury Escapes. Its store in Chatswood, Sydney, was tracking toward about $100 million in annual sales. The company also runs a Melbourne to Maldives charter at its own risk. “We’re on risk, so if we don’t sell out, it’s on us,” Schwab said.
The Luxury Escapes Agent Hub
Luxury Escapes launched its Agent Hub in March 2024. The hub now runs in Australia and the UK, and thousands of agents use it for commissionable rates on limited-time offers, cruise and tour products.
Adam Schwab, founder and CEO of Luxury Escapes, told Travel Weekly Australia in February 2026 that the hub “could be a billion-dollar business for us in the next couple of years”. He added: “We now sell to agents and it’s one of our fastest-growing parts of the business.”
On growth, he puts margin first: “It’s easy to grow top line if you spend a lot on marketing. What we focus on is growing contribution margin.”
Other recent deals
- Fever raised US$250 million in primary equity on 17 September. EQT led the round, with Point72 Private Investments and Baillie Gifford. Fever’s own announcement calls it the largest round ever for a live-entertainment tech company. Fever operates in more than 55 countries, has tripled its revenue over three years and reports positive EBITDA.
- Laters.com, based in Singapore, closed a US$1.5 million seed round led by XBO Ventures and rebranded on 8 September.
What operators should read into it
Ellerston’s terms value Luxury Escapes on cash returns and a set exit: a 5 per cent dividend yield, more than double the money, and out in two to three years. That return case rests on distributions and not on growth alone, and it matches Schwab’s stated focus on contribution margin. Fever’s round points the same way. The company led its announcement with positive EBITDA as well as its growth figures.
For hotels, cruise lines and DMCs selling into Australia, Luxury Escapes now reaches buyers three ways: its members online, its physical stores such as Chatswood, and agents through the Agent Hub. It also carries inventory risk on its own Maldives charter. The Maldives figure matters most to suppliers, because one platform handles half of Australian travellers to that destination. With a new investor on the board that expects a dividend, the platform’s margin per booking will face closer scrutiny.
Key takeaway
Investors in APAC travel are paying for margin and cash returns, and Luxury Escapes at $525 million is a clear price point for a platform that sells to consumers, in stores and through agents. This quarter, a hotel, cruise line or DMC selling into Australia should check how much of its business moves through Luxury Escapes’ members, stores and Agent Hub, and what that channel costs compared with direct bookings. We expect the conversation about the capital behind these channels to continue at ITB Asia and HICAP in Singapore, 20 to 23 October.
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