Two firms fighting it out over Parkdean
TWO international private equity firms are reported to be vying to take over North East holiday park operator Parkdean Resorts.
PAI Partners, the French investor with a £19bn portfolio, and TPG, a Texas-based firm with a £17.9bn portfolio, are thought to have joined forces in a bid for the Gosforthheadquartered firm, which is owned by Canada’s Onex Corporation.
Parkdean, which employs about 750 people in Newcastle and runs 66 parks across the country, was acquired by Onex in 2016 for £1.35bn and is rumoured to have been up for sale since October following a pandemic-spurred boom in UK holidays.
In April another US private equity firm, Apollo Global Management, was reported to have put forward a £2bn bid for Parkdean – but it is now said to have dropped out of the bidding. Bourne Leisure, owner of the Haven holiday parks group, was also rumoured to be putting together a bid.
The sale process, which is being handled by Morgan Stanley, follows a number of deals in the leisure sector, including Communities’ acquisition of Park Holidays for nearly £1bn, while CVC Capital Partners snapped up rival Away Resorts and Butlin’s is now also on the market.
Last month, Derbyshire-based holiday operator Forest Holidays was also sold to Cheshire-based Sykes Holiday Cottages. Last month, Parkdean announced plans to spend £140m into its UK parks as
Parkdean said its advance bookings were at record levels
part of its biggest ever investment programme.
The firm said it would invest in new accommodation, new and upgraded activities and facilities, and installing park-wide Wi-Fi to further improve customers’ experience in the continuing staycation boom.
At the time Parkdean said its advance bookings were at record levels, prompting a recruitment drive for 7,000 seasonal jobs, as well as a number of full-time jobs, across sales, food and beverage, and housekeeping, to add to the 2,000 jobs created last year.
Parkdean Resorts declined to comment.
Parkdean Resorts was formed in 2015 by the merger of Parkdean Holidays and Park Resorts. Its sites in the North East include Sandy Bay, near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea and Whitley Bay Holiday Park in the North East.