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The Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) is eyeing up a stake in Center Parcs, the UK short break holiday lodge business currently owned by Brookfield private equity.
Sky News has reported that GMPF is among a number of pension funds including the Local Pension Partnership (LPPI) and the Edinburgh-based Lothian Pension Scheme considering buying between 15% and 20% of the company.
The GMPF has over £30bn under management and more than 430,000 members. Chancellor Rachel Reeves wants to see UK pension funds investing more in UK businesses and infrastructure.
The UK business was originally launched by Scottish and Newcastle Breweries, with two sites, adding a third in 2001, when the business purchased Oasis Lakeland Holiday Village, near to Penrith in Cumbria, and renamed it Center Parcs Whinfell Forest.
In that same year, Scottish & Newcastle split the business into two separate enterprises – Center Parcs Europe and Center Parcs UK, which was bought by Deutsche Bank, before being floated on the stock market in 2003.
In 2006, private equity firm The Blackstone Group bought Center Parcs UK and, in response to increased demand, in 2012 construction started on a fifth UK village, Center Parcs Woburn Forest in Bedfordshire, which opened in 2014.
In 2015, after nine years of ownership, The Blackstone Group sold the business to Brookfield Property Partners. In the same year, it was announced that the business intended to expand to Ireland and had found a site in County Longford, with construction beginning on Center Parcs Longford Forest in 2017.
Center Parcs will be valued at around £4.5bn with a deal in the pipeline to complete in early 2026.
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