Canadians put Center Parcs up for sale with a £5bn price tag
Center Parcs put up for sale by Canadian private equity owner with a price tag of £5 billion
Center Parcs has been put up for sale by the Canadian private equity owner with a price tag between £4 billion and £5 billion.
This could be a stroke of luck for Brookfield – chaired by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney – who bought the holiday resort group from Blackstone in 2015 for £2.4bn.
Brookfield reportedly wants to abandon its investment since last year.
Family favorite: Center Parcs – which hosts two million guests annually – has been put up for sale by its Canadian owners
Investment bankers appointed by the company have been polling potential buyers for the past week, the Financial Times reported.
Brookfield declined to comment.
Center Parcs operates five holiday villages in the UK and one in Ireland, attracting millions of visitors to its forest sites and offering accommodation, along with activities such as water sports, quad biking and tennis.
It was originally part of a Dutch company, which opened its first UK location in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, in 1987.
After further sites were added, the UK arm was spun off and floated on the stock exchange in 2003 before Blackstone bought it in 2006.
Center Parcs reopened its locations in Ireland and the UK in 2021 after the pandemic forced them to close.
The company’s real estate was independently valued at £4.1 billion last month. It hosts more than 2 million guests a year at 98 percent occupancy, according to Brookfield.
The Canadian company’s investment in Center Parcs since the takeover has included £100 million in technical upgrades alone.
Revenue for the year to 21 April 2022 reached a record £503.4m and profits returned to the black, with a profit of £245.6m following a Covid-induced loss the previous year.
Brookfield’s plan to sell Center Parcs comes amid a flurry of other deals in the industry, with holiday camp chain Butlin’s being sold for £300m to its former owners, the Harris family, last September.
British operator Parkdean Resorts is also up for sale. In June 2021, private equity group CVC Capital Partners bought Away Resorts for £250 million, followed by Aria Resorts in August.