Portfolio Acquisition

RNS Number : 6899S

Caledonia Investments PLC

11 November 2013

 



 

 

CALEDONIA INVESTMENTS PLC ACQUIRES PARK HOLIDAYS UK

Caledonia Investments plc ("Caledonia") is pleased to announce that it has acquired Park Holidays UK ("Park Holidays"), a UK holiday park operator that owns and operates 21 freehold and two leasehold caravan parks in the South of England.

Park Holidays has been run by its current management team of Jeff Sills (Chief Executive), Al Loch (Chief Financial Officer) and Tony Clish (Sales and Marketing Director) since January 2006, when they acquired the business from its founders through a management buy-in backed by funds managed by Graphite Capital ("Graphite"). Since then, Park Holidays has grown to become the UK's fourth largest caravan holiday park operator. For the financial year to 31 December 2012, Park Holidays generated EBITDA of £20.4m and profit before tax of £2.5m, with gross assets of £256.5m.

The transaction values the business at £172 million, which has been funded by £88 million of equity from Caledonia and £90 million of bank debt. RBS, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Barclays Bank and Santander have provided the acquisition debt facilities. In addition, a £10 million acquisition and capital expenditure facility has been arranged to assist the future expansion of the business.

Commenting on the acquisition, Duncan Johnson, Caledonia's Head of Unquoted Investments, said:

"We are delighted to be supporting Jeff Sills and his team in the next stage of Park Holiday's development.  The new capital structure will ensure Park Holidays can continue to enhance its parks around the south of England, as well as allow Jeff and his team to build the business through targeted acquisitions."

Jeff Sills, Chief Executive Officer of Park Holidays, commented:

"Caledonia is acquiring a leading asset in the UK holidays' market with excellent growth prospects.  Their investment model is ideally suited to ensure we can continue to enhance and expand our parks and I look forward to a long and rewarding relationship with them. I would also like to thank Graphite who have been a great backer of Park Holidays and have provided the support to allow us to develop the business to where it is today."

Will Wyatt, Chief Executive of Caledonia, stated:

"Caledonia's unquoted strategy is to invest in leading businesses which combine an ability to grow profits with the capability to pay a healthy annual cash return to shareholders.  Park Holiday's business model, as one of the leading businesses in its sector, fits these criteria well.

Our investment is further proof of the attraction of Caledonia's unique investment model to a wide number of management teams and businesses.  The investment is a welcome addition to our portfolio of unquoted businesses and will assist in driving long term capital and income growth for our shareholders."

11 November 2013

For further information contact:

Caledonia Investments plc
Will Wyatt, Chief Executive	[phone]
Duncan Johnson, Head of Unquoted Investments
Media contact:
Tulchan Communications
Peter Hewer	[phone]
Michelle Clarke

END

Notes for editors:

Caledonia Investments plc

Caledonia is a self-managed investment trust company listed on the London Stock Exchange with net assets of approximately £1.3 billion. The company maintains a concentrated portfolio of international quoted, unquoted and fund investments and has paid an increasing annual dividend for 46 years.

In the unquoted arena, Caledonia seeks to invest £20 to £60 million in private companies either on a majority or minority basis in situations where it believes there to be a good opportunity for building value over the longer term.

In 2013, Caledonia has made six unquoted investments: four into current portfolio investments: TGE Marine (a marine gas-engineering business based in Germany); Cobehold (a European unquoted investment house); Oval (the leading UK mid-market corporate insurance broker); and Brookshire Capital (a UK based property investment company); as well as two new investments - Choice Care Group (a learning disability care group) completed in August 2013 and now Park Holidays.

For additional information on Caledonia, please visit www.caledonia.com.  Neither the contents of the company's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the company's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.

Park Holidays

Park Holidays was originally established in 1985 under the name Cinque Ports Leisure Limited ("Cinque Ports") by Peter Bull and Jim Watson and subsequently acquired in a management buy-in by Graphite Capital in 2006.  The business was rebranded Park Holidays UK in 2007.

Park Holidays' portfolio currently has a total of 8,965 developed caravan pitches, 70% of which are owner occupied and a further 20% of which are hired out to holiday makers on a short term basis.

Park Holidays' is headquartered in Coghurst near Hastings in East Sussex.  As at 31 August 2013, the business had 239 permanent and 540 temporary employees.

For additional information on Park Holidays, please visit www.parkholidays.com.  Neither the contents of the company's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the company's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.

Transaction

The investment in Park Holidays was led by Tim Lewis, Duncan Johnson and Tarquin Wethered for Caledonia.

Macfarlanes (Stephen Drewitt, Kirstie Hutchinson and Jessica Adam) acted as legal counsel for Caledonia.  KPMG (Barry Carter) provided financial due diligence advice and Deloitte (Tim Haden) tax advice.  CBRE (David Batchelor) undertook property valuation work with CiL (Alex Marshal) providing commercial due diligence advice.  Management due diligence was performed by Catalysis (Mike Hicks).  Wyvern Partners (Mike Barnes) provided debt advisory services.

Banking facilities were arranged, and the syndicate led, by RBS (Lee O'Donnell) with support from HSBC (Andrew Mantle), Barclays (Jamie Farell), Lloyds (Mark Bolshaw) and Santander (Neil Bennett).  CMS Cameron McKenna (Peter Crichton) provided legal advice to the banking syndicate. 

Management were advised by Wyvern Partners (Martin Kitcatt) and DWF (Mark Gibson).

 

END

 

 

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