Center Parcs IPO: Owner Blackstone gears up for potential float with loan plan
Center Parcs has paved the way for a stock market listing after its owner moved to re-jig the firm’s debt pile.
The resort’s owner, US private equity giant Blackstone, is understood to be mulling plans to refinance Center Parcs’ complex debt mountain, which includes £1bn of secured financing.
The deal would allow Blackstone to take out a multi-million pound dividend and tidy up the balance sheet ahead of a potential sale of shares to investors. Blackstone declined to comment last night.
The news, first reported by Bloomberg, came just weeks after Center Parcs reported a rise in annual revenues to £314.6m for the year ending April 2014. Pre-tax profits for the holiday group fell, however, to £36.7m due to higher expenses.
Speculation about the group has been rumbling since late last year, when reports surfaced that the group was planning a £2bn sale of the resorts business to a trade buyer.