The former owner of Formula One is preparing to enter the £4bn race to snap up Center Parcs, the family holiday resorts group.
CVC Capital Partners is poised to make an offer for the company’s six sites across the UK and Ireland later this month, weeks after the business was put up for sale.
A private equity firm that also owns the RAC motoring group and a stake in Premiership Rugby, CVC is expected to table its bid through its Strategic Opportunities fund, which typically holds on to businesses for six to 15 years before selling them on.
CVC already owns a British holiday parks operator, Away Resorts – with sites including Tattershall Lakes in Lincolnshire and Sandy Balls in the New Forest – after a £250m deal in 2021.
The firm faces competition to buy Center Parcs’ sites from several infrastructure funds, including France’s Antin, according to Sky News, which first reported CVC’s interest.
Center Parcs has been owned since 2015 by Brookfield Property Partners, part of the Canadian asset manager that counts former Bank of England governor Mark Carney as its chairman.
Brookfield hired bankers at Barclays, Bank of America and Eastdil Secured to manage the sale. Bids are expected to come in at the lower end of a previously reported £4bn to £5bn price range, Sky reported.
If Brookfield can land a price towards the top end of the range, the firm would double the £2.4bn it paid the private equity group Blackstone for the UK business eight years ago.
Center Parcs operates in Europe – in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Belgium – under separate ownership.
Resorts including Center Parcs bounced back quickly from closures forced on them during the start of the Covid pandemic, with holidaymakers flocking to domestic resorts as international travel restrictions fuelled a staycation boom.
Center Parcs has five resorts in the UK and one in Ireland that are known for their range of activities – from treetop trekking and pantomimes to crazy golf and spas – and their sometimes eye-watering fees.
Its UK resorts are Elveden Forest in Suffolk; Whinfell Forest in Cumbria; Woburn Forest in Bedfordshire and Longleat Forest in Wiltshire. In Ireland, its site is at Longford Forest, near Ballymahon.
If CVC were to land Center Parcs, it would increase private equity ownership of the UK’s domestic holiday park market.
Bourne Leisure, which includes caravan park operator Haven Holidays, was bought by Blackstone for about £3bn in January 2021. After snapping up Away Resorts later the same year, CVC then bought up Aria Resorts and Coppergreen Leisure to combine the businesses.
Center Parcs has been operating in the UK since 1987 when it opened in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire.
The group’s roots can be traced to 1967 when a Dutch businessman, Piet Derksen, opened a campsite at De Lommerbergen, called Sporthuis Centrum. It was later rebranded to Center Parcs and the tents were replaced with lodges.
Brookfield declined to comment. CVC has been contacted for comment.
