H.I.G. Europe Acquires a Group of Seven Leisure Parks From Compagnie des Alpes
PARIS – February 1, 2011 – H.I.G. Europe, the European arm of global private equity firm H.I.G. Capital, announced today that one of its affiliates, in partnership with Laurent Bruloy, an experienced manager in the leisure parks sector (“the H.I.G. Group”), has completed the acquisition from Compagnie des Alpes, a listed company on the French stock exchange, of a group of seven European leisure parks. The transaction gives the H.I.G. Group a controlling stake in the business. Compagnie des Alpes is maintaining a minority stake.
These parks, with strong regional roots, attracted nearly 1.6 million visitors last year. The parks included in the transaction are the Bagatelle Park, the Aquarium at Saint Malo, the Mini Château Park and Val de Loire Aquarium, the Bouveret waterpark in Switzerland, Avonturenpark Hellendoorn in the Netherlands, and Pleasurewood Hills in the United Kingdom.
The objective of the H.I.G. Group is to accelerate the development of the parks by combining an organic and dynamic external growth strategy within this highly fragmented market. Over the next five years, approximately 20 million Euros will be invested to accelerate the development of the group.
Olivier Boyadjian, H.I.G. Europe Managing Director in France commented: “These European parks have demonstrated their attractiveness by continuing to show strong results even in a depressed economic environment. With a return to growth in French and European tourism, we intend to provide the financial and operational means to this group in order to strengthen its established regional positions while improving its performance to become a European leader in the regional parks sector.”
Laurent Bruloy: “I am delighted to lead this important project, with a long-term partner such as H.I.G. Their team of professionals has actively supported me for almost a year, and has provided financial expertise, sharp knowledge of our sector and precious operational and industrial skills. I am confident this will be a very successful investment for all of us.”
This transaction represents H.I.G. Europe’s seventh new investment in the last 12 months
About H.I.G. Capital
H.I.G. Capital is a leading global private equity investment firm with more than GBP 6 billion of equity capital under management. Based in Miami, and with offices in Atlanta, Boston, New York, and San Francisco in the U.S., as well as affiliate offices in London, Hamburg and Paris in Europe, H.I.G. specializes in providing capital to small and medium-sized companies with attractive growth potential. H.I.G. invests in management-led buyouts and recapitalizations of profitable and well managed manufacturing or service businesses. H.I.G. also has extensive experience with financial restructurings and operational turnarounds. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 200 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 50 companies with combined revenues in excess of €6 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.hig.com.