Real estate private equity firm Aermont Capital has bought UK holiday parks operator Park Holidays from Sun Communities for £768M ($1B), in one of its largest UK buys ever.
Sun, a U.S. REIT, revealed the transaction in a stock exchange announcement Thursday morning. The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year.
Sun, which specialises in manufactured housing and roving vehicle parks, bought Park Holidays for £950M in 2021. It spent another £250M buying in the company’s freeholds, taking its total outlay on the company to more than £1.2B.
In that sense, Aermont, which is owned by listed Singaporean investor Keppel, is buying the company for a price significantly below that paid by the previous owner.
Sun said it was selling the business to focus on becoming a pure-play North American manufactured housing and RV company.
Park Holidays trades from around 50 locations in the UK that feature static caravans and amenities for holidaymakers.
The purchase is one of Aermont’s largest-ever UK acquisitions. Previous deals include the purchase of Pinewood Studios for £323M in 2016, a deal that has proved highly profitable — the company was valued at £3B at the peak of the market.
It has tried to enter the staycation market before: It was one of the bidders in the £3B sale of Center Parcs in 2023 before Brookfield ultimately aborted that sale.
The deal has come back around. Brookfield is in the process of creating a continuation vehicle backed by UK and international pension funds that will recapitalise Center Parcs at a valuation of about £4.5B.
As revealed by The Underground, Bisnow’s UK newsletter, Aermont is in the process of raising its sixth European opportunity fund. Its last fund raised £2.9B in 2022.