Center Parcs fuels IPO chatter with new chairman

The holiday parks business said it is replacing its long-serving chairman, potentially paving the way for a float, while the case for a trade sale also strengthened after Starwood emerged as a bidder

Centre Parcs is owned by private equity giant Blackstone

Center Parcs appointed a new chairman on the same day that the race to buy the holiday parks business intensified, with American investment group Starwood Capital emerging as a bidder for the private-equity owned business.

Blackstone has owned Center Parcs for nine years and is currently weighing whether to float the company or sell it to a suitor.

A float appeared to move a step closer on Thursday after the leisure business announced that Martin Robinson, who has chaired the holiday parks operator for sixteen years, is to make way for Vagn Sorensen at the start of June.

Mr Sorensen has been chairman of SSP, owner of the Upper Crust and Caffe Ritazza chains found in airports and train stations, since 2006 and helped to steer the company onto the London stock exchange last year.

Since 2008, he has also been chairman of Dutch telecoms company TDC, which listed in Copenhagen in 2010. Mr Sorensen was previously the boss of Austrian Airlines.

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But while the chairman appointment spurred speculation that Blackstone would opt for an initial public offering, the prospect of a trade sale was also strengthened on Thursday by news that Starwood Capital had joined a Center Parcs bid made by buyout house CVC.

Starwood is focused on real estate investments and was set up by Barry Sternlicht, who is also the founder of American hotels giant Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. CVC is understood to holding ongoing talks with GIC, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, about gaining its backing for a Center Parcs takeover.

Blackstone is thought to have put a £2.5bn price tag on the holiday parks operator and, aside from CVC and Starwood, the auction had also drawn the interest of Canada's Brookfield Property and Canadian pension fund CPP and KSL Capital Partners. Blackstone and CVC declined to comment.

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