Centre Parcs is on the market for between £4bn and £5bn, it's been reported. The holiday resort group, which boasts six sites - five in the UK, one in Ireland - is owned by a Canadian private equity group that is reported to be speaking with potential buyers.
The Financial Times reported today (Monday) that advisors to Brookfield Property Partners are seeking interested parties. It says that UK ‘staycation’ businesses of the Centre Parcs type are post-Covid popular investments for professional investors.
If Brookfield manages to get £5bn for the sites, it will have almost doubled the price of the business, which it purchased from Blackstone for around £2.4bn eight years ago. The parks are known for family-friendly activities including indoor pools and activities.
A proposed new park which was intended for Worth Forest, West Sussex, elicited protests from wildlife campaigners earlier this year, causing Brookfield to shelve the plans. Although the pandemic saw the group make a loss in 2021, the staycation trend helped it post a £66m profit in the year to 21 April 2022.
Center Parcs operates five short break destinations across the UK: Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire; Elveden Forest, Suffolk; Longleat Forest, Wiltshire; Whinfell Forest, Cumbria and Woburn Forest, Bedfordshire. The Center Parcs concept originated in Holland in 1967, with Sherwood Forest opening in the UK in 1987.
Each Center Parcs is nestled within around 400 acres of protected and enhanced woodland, with the holiday village designed to complement and work with the forest environment. Center Parcs UK is a separate entity from Center Parcs Europe.
