Park Resorts owner faces another investor power struggle

THE PRIVATE EQUITY group behind Park Resorts has continued to fight attempts by an activist shareholder to join its board.

Electra, which runs the recently expanded Park resorts group of hotels and holiday parks, has received another call from Edward Bramson to place himself and Ian Brindle onto Electra’s board.

Bramson, through his firm Sherborne Investors which owns just under 30% of Electra, has requisitioned his second meeting, following a failed attempt to join the board in October 2014.

In a statement to the markets – in which a letter from Electra chairman Roger Yates to Bramson is reproduced – Yates said that their appointments risk “destabilising the current successful partnership between the board and Electra Partners”.

“In our view this outweighs the argument that Sherborne should have board representation simply because it is a large shareholder,” stated Yates.

Bramson believes that Electra is undervalued due to operational deficiencies in its portfolio – a view not shared by Electra.

Electra struck a deal to merge its resorts and hotels businesses into Park Resorts Group, creating a billion-pound business. The deal saw a new £550m debt facility arranged by Barclays, RBS and JP Morgan, which refinanced existing deals, including those in which Electra had invested – resulting in £96m in cash proceeds. The return to Electra brings its total take to £106m, or 91% of its original investment cost.