Verdant Leisure completes its second acquisition

RJD Partners’ portfolio company, Verdant Leisure (“Verdant”), owner and operator of three well established holiday parks in Southern Scotland, has completed its second acquisition, buying Riverside Country Park (“Riverside”) located in Wooler, Northumberland. The deal is the holiday park operator’s first outside Scotland and is part of the growth strategy to create a regional group with significant scale. RJD has provided further equity funding to finance the acquisition.

Riverside is a 78 acre park with a current maximum capacity of 440 static pitches and 72 touring pitches, operating year round.  The park is well located close to Cheviot National Park and is about one hour’s drive north of Newcastle and 90 minutes south east of Edinburgh. The vendor was North Dales LLP.

RJD, one of the leading UK lower middle market private equity investors, first invested in Verdant in September 2010, backing a highly experienced sector management team in a management buy-in of Dunham Leisure Limited, the then owners of the Pease Bay and Thurston Manor parks.

The Verdant team, comprising Graham Hodgson as Chief Executive, Andrew Wall as Finance Director and Bev Dixon as Operations Director, recognised that these two parks offered an attractive platform from which to implement a buy and build strategy to create a larger regional group with significant scale.  Verdant completed its first bolt on acquisition in July 2011, adding Viewfield Manor, a 298 static pitch site located close to the Ayrshire Coast, to its portfolio.

Frank Bulman, Partner, RJD Partners, comments: "We are delighted to back the Verdant team in actively implementing the buy and build strategy identified at the time of the original buy-in. The management team has already demonstrated an ability to add value to the assets they acquire, achieving operational improvements in the three existing parks.  Riverside is an excellent fit with the business and will enable Verdant to reap the benefits of scale and operational synergies.”

Graham Hodgson, CEO of Verdant, says: "We believe Riverside will be a valuable strategic addition to our portfolio. We have reviewed many acquisition opportunities since the buy-in last year and have been able to be highly selective in those that we’ve pursued. Like Viewfield Manor, Riverside is a well planned and located park but nevertheless offers clear operational improvement and growth opportunities. It also enables us to expand the geographical breadth of our offering.”

Verdant Leisure was advised by Grant Thornton (financial due diligence); Eversheds (legal advice) and CBRE (property due diligence). 

Richard Caston, Frank Bulman and Richard Court worked on the deal for RJD.

The contents of this news release are intended for information purposes only. RJD Partners Limited does not provide investment advice and we strongly recommend that before making any decision to invest or engage in any investment activity, you should obtain proper professional advice. See our full terms & conditions.  RJD Partners Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the conduct of investment business in the UK. RJD Partners Limited is registered in England and Wales No. 04245768. Registered office: 8/9 Well Court, London EC4M 9DN.