As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian water park Istralandia is set to enter this year’s summer tourist season with new owners, local portal Glas Istre/The Voice of Istria reports.
According to the Lider portal, the takeover of the first and largest water park in all of Croatia and one of the largest in southern Europe was announced by the French Groupe Looping, which has expanded its network of amusement parks to span eight European countries.
The value of the deal itself, in which the seller’s exclusive financial advisors were Grubisic & Partners, hasn’t been revealed, but it can be assumed that it was not less than five times the amount of EBITDA for the company (16.4 million kuna) which generated a massive 30.2 million kuna in revenue back in 2021.
The French company in question otherwise describes itself on its website as a ”group of regional leisure parks consisting of 16 parks of four types. Our aquariums, animal parks, amusement parks and water parks are major local attractions in their areas. We operate in 7 countries – France, the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Spain and Portugal, and we aim to become the European leader in the regional leisure park market. Our core business is operating leisure parks; client experience and visitor satisfaction are our priorities. We welcome nearly 5.5 million visitors per year, and all staff members share the common aim of giving our visitors a fun and entertaining family day out.
Our expertise as an operator is the foundation on which we aim to build. The Looping Group aims to triple its business in the next few years, both by developing its existing parks, and by growing its portfolio of activities. We intend to acquire existing regional sites, build new sites and establish management contracts to operate leisure sites for both private and public bodies including leisure park owners, campsite operators, shopping centres, property developers, local authorities and all bodies concerned with tourism development.
The Group’s sites are managed independently to enable them to adapt to local conditions. They benefit from support in aspects of the business such as shopping, merchandising, catering services, marketing, digital services, finance and human resources in order to benefit both from pooling resources and from sharing best practice among the group, thus enhancing performance.”
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