Blackstone Inc. agreed to sell British seaside holiday resorts operator Butlins back to a former owner, the Harris family — also a partner in the U.S. private-equity giant’s larger U.K. Bourne Leisure business.
Butlins, which was founded by Billy Butlin in 1936 to provide affordable British vacations, is being re-acquired for about £300 million ($343 million), according to a person familiar with the transaction who asked not to be identified as the valuation wasn’t included in a statement announcing the deal.
The transaction follows last year’s sale by the Harris family and partners of a controlling stake in Butlins parent Bourne Leisure to Blackstone in a deal worth about £3 billion, Bloomberg News reported at the time. The families stayed on as minority shareholders.
Bourne owns Butlins, which has three sites, alongside other hotel and caravan park groups such as the Haven and Warner Leisure Hotels brands. The company was co-founded by billionaire entrepreneur Peter Harris in the 1960s.
Blackstone’s European head of private equity, Lionel Assant, said the investment group will reinvest proceeds from the sale into Bourne Leisure.
The deal comes after Blackstone sold the real-estate assets of the three Butlins sites to pension manager Universities Superannuation Scheme for about £300 million in July.
