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Indian
millionaire to buy British holiday firm
Sunday November 14, 2010 06:52:03 PM,
IANS
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London:
An Indian millionaire is in talks to buy Britain's holiday camp
chain Pontin's for up to 15 million pounds.
Bhanu Choudhrie, through his family's investment vehicle C&C Alpha
Group, has teamed up with the Dubai royal family to look at buying
the iconic business. The C&C Alpha Group will hold discussions
with Pontin's current administrator KPMG Monday, according to the
Daily Mail.
Pontin's went into administration Friday, putting up to 850 jobs
at risk, along with the holidays booked by Britons at the
company's five sites -- Brean Sands in Somerset, Camber Sands in
East Sussex, Pakefield in Suffolk, Prestatyn Sands in Wales and
Southport in Merseyside.
Choudhrie said: "We want to keep the management team in place and
expand the business."
The entrepreneur said he had looked at the business six months ago
when Pontin's chief executive Ian Smith was searching for
potential investors.
"We walked away from the deal, even though we travelled to two
sites and spent 100,000 pounds on due diligence," Choudhrie said
about the previous talks.
Jane Moriarty, joint administrator at KPMG, said: "Everybody
should get their holidays. We fully expected a lot of interest in
Pontin's - it's an iconic British brand."
The 3,000 holidaymakers currently at its five camps would not be
affected, said Graham Parr, chairman of Pontin's.
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