KKR Wins Bid for Dutch Holiday Park Operator PAI’s Roompot
Main Photo: The Roompot holiday park concept
Date: June 2020
Location: Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands
Name: Roompot holiday parks
No. of Keys: 33 Parks…
Seller: France’s PAI Partners, who bought Roompot from Gilde for €600 million (US$673 million) in 2016.
Buyer: Private equity giant KKR has reached an agreement to buy the Dutch vacation company Roompot from European private equity firm PAI Partners, the companies said in a statement.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but Reuters, citing a source familiar with the transaction, said Roompot was valued at $1.12 billion.
The company is the second-largest operator of vacation parks in Europe. It directly owns and operates 33 parks in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium and has exclusive agreements with more than 100 third-party park operators.
PAI reportedly began looking for a buyer in October of last year. In March, it planned to launch a formal sale process but called that off due to the pandemic.
“KKR is investing in Roompot through our Core Investments strategy, which is our pool of capital for longer-term investments, and we look forward to working with Jurgen and his team over the coming years,” KKR director Joerg Metzner said. “We have been looking for a platform to invest behind in the fragmented European holiday parks market for some time. Our support for Roompot and its management team fits perfectly with our broader investment theme in the leisure space.”
Roompot has revenue of nearly €400 million ($448 million) on three million guests and 13 million overnight stays per year, according to the companies, but it has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Moody’s, this week, cut its credit outlook on the company to “negative,” citing a 50% drop in revenue in March, and a 70% drop in revenue in April, year-over-year.
Moody’s said Roompot has seen a surge in demand from domestic customers in recent weeks, but the company was vulnerable to the risk of a second wave of infections.
KKR said it would continue to support Roompot’s current management in its further development into a “leading pan-European operator.”
THPT Comment: Good to see KKR back in “buy-mode” in Europe.
First Seen: CFO.com
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