KKR To Buy Dutch Holiday Parks Company Roompot From PAI

KKR, the New York-based global investment firm, signed an agreement to buy the Dutch holiday parks company Roompot Group from PAI Partners, the companies announced Thursday (June 18).

Terms were not disclosed, but a report in The Financial Times said the deal was for €1 billion ($1.1 billion).

Founded in the Zeeland region of the Netherlands 55 years ago, Roompot is one of the largest holiday parks and campsite operators in Europe. It has more than 150 sites in its portfolio including resorts, parks and campsites in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France and Spain. It also provides booking and other services to more than 100 third-party park operators, the company said.

Paris-based European private equity firm PAI Partners has owned the park company since 2016. Roompot accommodates 3 million guests in 13 million overnight stays annually, generating revenues of nearly 400 million euros ($448 million), according to the announcement.

“Roompot is already a leading player in the region with a best-in-class management team and a strong recent track record,” Daan Knottenbelt, a KKR partner, said in a statement. “We see significant further growth potential based on a very strong development pipeline, continued expansion of Roompot’s owned assets and new corporate partnerships.”

But the deal comes as Roompot has been hurt by the COVID-19 lockdowns, the Financial Times reported. Revenues fell 50 percent in March and 70 percent in April compared with the same months last year, according to Moody’s, which this week lowered its credit outlook on the company to negative.

“There has been a trend towards staycation [and] this crisis is accelerating that because of the limitations on international travel and people being worried about airports and flights,” said Knottenbelt, whose company has $207 billion in assets under management.

Joerg Metzner, KKR director, said the company has been seeking a way to invest 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,” he said in a statement.

In separate news, last month KKR was the latest mega investor to join a deal to turn India’s Jio Platforms, the digital subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd., into a global tech giant. KKR is in talks to buy a $1.5 billion stake that would value the fast-growing Indian digital company at $65 billion, as PYMNTS reported.