Center Parcs on sale for '£4bn or £5bn' as Brits look forward to summer holidays

15 May 2023 , 21:50

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Center Parcs UK has been put up for sale (Image: Alamy Stock Photo)

Center Parcs has been put up for sale on the brink of its busiest time of the year.

Owners Canadian private equity firm Brookfield is reportedly looking to roughly double the £2.5bn it paid to takeover the UK and Ireland holiday village chain in 2015.

It is said to be hoping to raise between £4bn and £5bn.

More than two million people a year visit the six sites which consist of family-friendly forest cabins, with attractions including indoor waterparks.

The first location opened in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire in 1987.

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Villages at Elveden Forest, Longleat Forest, Whinfell Forest and Woburn Forest then followed.

In 2019, a site was launched in Longford Forest in Ireland.

More than two million people a year visit the six sites (Center Parcs)

Brookfield has reportedly appointed investment bankers to find potential buyers, according to the Financial Times.

Head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, Danni Hewson, told the BBC demand for Center Parks is expected to remain high in the near future with Covid seeing Brits opt for more staycations.

She said: "During the pandemic Brits rushed to snap up sought after places, but even with cash-strapped families ditching the extra 'staycation' in favour of one holiday, it's clear by the prices and availability that there's still more than enough business to go around - so far."

But she added that the cost of living crisis did potentially put a spanner in the works in terms of future growth.

Brookfield has reportedly appointed investment bankers to find potential buyers (Handout)

Center Parks was forced to drop plans to build another holiday village in West Sussex in recent months.

It said a "rigorous" environment survey on Oldhouse Warren on the outskirts of Crawley had shown the site - bought in July 2021 - was not suitable.

At the end of 2022, average occupancy rates across the six existing sites were at 97.3% - roughly what they had been before the pandemic, according to figures from Center Parks.

Blackstone Group only sold the UK side of the business to Brookfield (Handout)

While revenue for last April to December was said to be up 20% on the same period in 2021, and 18% higher than before Covid.

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Center Parcs UK is separate to Center Parcs Europe, which has sites in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France.

Blackstone Group only sold the UK side of the business to Brookfield.

Ryan Merrifield