Electra acquires South Lakeland Parks

The GP provided £22m of the transaction value in equity, with the balance supplied as debt by Investec.

Electra worked alongside its portfolio company, Park Resorts, to acquire the business. South Lakeland's holiday parks will be managed by Park Resorts following the acquisition, under a management contract.

The firm acquired South Lakeland from White Ocean Leisure. The deal marks the second instance in which South Lakeland has been owned by private equity. In June 2006, LGV Capital backed the £100m management buyout of South Lakeland, which saw mezzanine and debt provided by Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. The company's management acquired a minority stake in the business as part of the transaction.

South Lakeland was then sold to White Ocean Leisure by LGV in November 2007 for £125m. The sale generated a 2.2x money multiple for LGV, as well as an IRR of 72% over LGV's 18-month holding period, according to unquote" data.

In January last year, Electra acquired Lloyds' stake in Park Resorts, which was due to be refinanced in 2014. The firm invested £45.4m for the term debt of Park Resorts at a discount to face value.

At the end of July this year, Electra refinanced the existing debt portfolio of Park Resorts and upped its stake in the business to 54%. The GP now holds debt facilities in the company totalling £145m. The refinancing reduced Park Resorts' overall senior debt by £37m, from £353m to £316m, and pushed the maturity date back to December 2017.

Debt
Investec Growth & Acquisition Finance provided an integrated debt facility of £25m. The financing will provide funding for the acquisition as well as working capital for investments to maintain and develop facilities in South Lakeland's holiday parks.

Company
Founded in 1988, South Lakeland is headquartered in Kendal, Cumbria. The business was known as South Lakeland Caravans until June 2006. South Lakeland operates nine holiday parks in the Lake District and the Morecambe Bay area.

With South Lakeland and Park Resorts operating together, the two companies will hold a combined holiday park portfolio of 48 properties, creating the largest holiday parks operator in the UK.

People
David Boden is the CEO of Park Resorts. Electra chief investment partner Alex Fortescue and investment manager Ian Wood worked on the deal for the firm. Tristan Nagler and Paul Rablen worked on the debt facility for Investec.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• UK / Ireland
• Buyouts
• Consumer
• Electra Partners LLP
• Investec
• United Kingdom