The Butlin's chain of holiday camps is up for sale for an eye-watering £700 million.
According to the Sunday Times, the current owner, the US private equity firm Blackstone, wants to get rid of the seaside resorts as part of a wider restructure of its Bourne Leisure holidays business. The paper reports that Rothschild, which is handling the sale, has been hosting sessions with potential buyers in London recently.
However, one US private equity bidder said he was shocked at the price for a business that now comprises only three camps: Minehead, Skegness, and Bognor Regis. All other ex-Butlin's camps have either been decomissioned to make way for housing, for example, or have been sold to other holiday companies.
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One source told the Sunday Times that Butlin's had been telling bidders that it generates £65m of profit per year, and that the £700m valuation was therefore fair. However, some £75m of investment is needed to upgrade the camps' accommodation and infrastructure, while a new head office would need to be found, as this currently operates out of the Bourne Leisure office in Hertfordshire.
Bourne, which was bought for £3 billion by Blackstone last year, also owns the Haven and Warner Leisure Hotels brands. Sources at Blackstone told the Sunday Times they did not recognise the figures being bandied around.
The first Butlin's camp opened in Skegness in 1936. Over the following decades the camps exploded in popularity, before the advent of cheaper foreign holidays from the 1960s onwards dented the enthusiasm for staycations - until coronavirus restrictions made us all dream once again about a trip to the seaside.
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