Pierre & Vacances Buys Belgian Sunparks

Pierre & Vacances, owner of Center Parcs Europe, is to take over the four three- and four-star holiday parks from the Belgian Sunpark Group. These are two holiday parks on the North Sea, one resort in the Ardennes and one in Campine with a total of 1,683 holiday homes and 50 hotel rooms, and a whole series of indoor leisure and infrastructure facilities. In 2006 Sunparks was able to boast 450,000 guests and 1.8 million overnight stays. The utilised rate of capacity was 56%. The previous year's turnover was 39 million euros. Sunpark's takeover is based on a shareholder value of 150 million euros. Pierre & Vacances intends to sell the property belonging to Sunparks, which was also part of the takeover package, in the coming year (in the past, Center Parcs had already sold property from its 16 former holiday villages). (eap)