Massive change looms for Center Parcs as owner begins talks with new investors

The owner of Center Parcs has reportedly started new discussions with investors about selling a stake in the company.

Brookfield Property Partners, which has owned the chain since 2015, is seeking to sell the company.

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A stake in the holiday giant could be sold, according to reports Sky News.

According to the report, the talks are at an early stage and may not lead to an agreement.

Brookfield, a Canadian private equity group, has sought to sell the entire company at a price of £5 billion as it considers the future of Center Parcs UK and Ireland.

Bidders reportedly interested in sites include CVC Capital Partners, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and real estate specialist KSL Capital Partners.

The latest news about a possible sale of just part of the company suggests that potential buyers are not willing to pay that price.

Brookfield was approached by The Sun Online but declined to comment.

Center Parcs has five locations across the country.

The leisure resort confirmed it intends to build a new site elsewhere in the south east of England.

Proposals for a new 900 cottage site near Crawley in West Sussex were previously abandoned.

The Crawley plans were scrapped in February after environmental studies concluded the site was “not a suitable location” for a resort.

Center Parcs was founded in the Netherlands in 1968 and attracts millions of visitors every year.

There are sites in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, Whinfell Forest, the Lake District of Cumbria, Longleat Forest in Wiltshire, Elveden Forest in Suffolk and Woburn Forest in Bedfordshire.

There is also a Center Parcs resort near Ballymahon in Ireland, which last opened in 2019.

Center Parcs UK is a separate company from Center Parcs Europe, which operates holiday villages in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France.

The European business is owned by Blackstone Group, which sold the UK part of the business to Brookfield in 2015 for £2.4 billion.