Investors

Carlyle backs European holiday group

Homair Vacances is the second investment for Carlyle’s Europe Partners IV, which is currently in market targeting €3bn.

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The Carlyle Group has entered into exclusive discussions to acquire a majority stake in Homair Vacances, a European outdoor holiday group, according to a statement.

The firm will buy the business from Montefiore Investment, which will re-invest in the company. Homair recently acquired Eurocamp from Holidaybreak, creating a pan-European outdoor accommodation and holiday group. Carlyle will own a 75 percent stake in Homair following the deal.

Financial details were not disclosed, but Carlyle will use capital from its Carlyle’s Europe Partners IV (CEPIV), which typically targets investments between €200 million and €1 billion.

Carlyle declined to comment beyond the statement, while Montefiore did not respond to a request for comment at press time. Homair operates over 15,000 mobile homes across almost 300 campsites primarily located in France, Italy and Spain.

Both Homair and Eurocamp are focused on the high end of outdoor holiday accommodation. The combined group intends to further improve customer experience and broaden its offering in the core French market through partnerships with campsites owners and acquisition of campsites, while accelerating growth in other European countries, Carlyle said.

“We expect significant value creation from the combining of the two companies through driving their respective best practices and customer experience within the sector,” Pierre-Olivier Desplanches, Director at Carlyle said in a statement.

The backing of Homair will be the second investment made by Carlyle’s Europe Partners IV. That fund is currently in market attempting to collect €3 billion. In April, Carlyle and PAI Partners entered into exclusive talks with French-based Schneider Electric to acquire its business unit Custom Sensors & Technologies for about $900 million, PEI reported at the time.

Montefiore typically invests up to €60 million in French services-focused companies with an enterprise value of between €30 million and €150 million. The firm is currently investing its third fund which closed on its €240 million hard-cap last September.