Center Parcs up for sale with a price tag of almost £5b

UK holiday village operator Center Parcs has reportedly been put up for sale by its Canadian private equity group owner.

Brookfield Property Partners is looking to offload the business for between £4b and £5b, according to the Financial Times.

It comes eight years after the company acquired Center Parcs from US private equity giant Blackstone for around £2.4b.

Brookfield has appointed investment bankers to sound out potential buyers over the past week, the FT reported, including other private equity firms.

Center Parcs runs five UK sites in Whinfell Forest, Sherwood Forest, Longleat Forest, Elveden Forest and Woburn Forest, as well as Longford Forrest near Ballymahon in Ireland.

Each village is located in around 400 acres of forest and lakes and is normally open 365 days a year.

Coronavirus restrictions saw the group fall to a £110m pre-tax loss during the pandemic, but profits rebounded to £172m in the year to 21 April 2022 amid a boom in UK staycations.

In February, the company scrapped plans to build a 900-lodge forest holiday village across 553 acres of land near Crawley in West Sussex after environmental surveys ruled it was "not a suitable location" for a resort.

However, Center Parcs said there was still "strong demand" for a new holiday village and that it would continue to search for a new site.

Brookfield and Center Parcs have been contacted for comment.