Center Parcs set for float on AIM
VENTURE capitalists and management at Center Parcs UK today netted a profit of around £300m by selling the business, just over two years after their buyout.
The sale to Collins Stewart marks the final major sale of companies in the DB Capital Partners portfolio built up by Manjit Dale and Martin Robinson, who recently backed the buyout of PizzaExpress.
It is thought to represent one of the most successful private equity investments in recent years. Dale, 36, has made £4m from the deal.
Center Parcs chief executive Martin Dalby, 42, is thought to have made £3m, part of which he will invest in new shares.
He said: 'We're very pleased with today's deal, which marks the success of the business both operationally and in terms of financial engineering.'
Collins Stewart, led by Terry Smith, is paying £285m for the holiday villages operator and will float the business on AIM, with trading in the shares starting 11 December.
The transaction is the last of several exits from Dale and Robinson's original investment in the family holidays group. They first bought Centerparcs from Scottish & Newcastle in March 2001 for £700m, then paid £140m for Bourne Leisure's Oasis Holiday Village in the North-West of England.
They subsequently sold the European business for £400m and this year offloaded the UK properties to Sun Capital partners for £465m in a sale and leaseback deal. The combined proceeds of £865m essentially mean today's sale marks a pure profit.
Collins Stewart has set up a company called Arbor to take over the business. It has already raised £245m through a placing of shares with institutions priced at 100p a share.
For Collins Stewart, the deal is a copycat of the float of Northumbrian Water in May. The broker was a leading party in the consortium that bought the group for £2.2bn, subsequently floating it on AIM with the agreement, in advance, of institutions to take on the bulk of the shares.
On completion of the deal, Robinson will become executive chairman and Dalby will remain chief executive.
Managers at DB bought themselves out of Deutsche Bank when the German parent decided it no longer wanted to be involved in private equity investments.
Center Parcs UK runs more than 3100 apartments on sites such as Sherwood Forest and Elveden Forest, Suffolk.
