Blackstone on the verge of selling £300 million Butlin to parent company founders | Business newsletter

Butlin’s owner is on track to list the sale of the £300m holiday camp chain to one of the founding families of its parent company.

Sky News understands that Bourne Leisure Group and controlling shareholder Blackstone are expected to sign an agreement to sell Butlin’s for a car set up by the Harris family as soon as this week.

If confirmed, the deal would see the Harris family, the company that helped found Bourne Leisure in the 1960s, take control of one of the UK’s most popular entertainment brands.

Paul Harris, the family member understood to be leading the deal, is likely to become Butlin’s chairman.

The transaction will bring the total proceeds from the Butlin sale to more than £600 million – a remarkable achievement in an economy ravaged by inflation, soaring corporate energy bills and forecasts of a protracted recession.

The Harris family’s interest in acquiring Butlin’s comes just over 18 months after they sold Bourne Leisure to Blackstone, the giant US private equity firm, for more than £3 billion.

As part of that deal, Blackstone said at the time that the founding family of Harris, Cook and Allen were reinvesting in Bourne Leisure, though it’s unclear how much of the trio currently owns.

An auction of the Butlin chain, which includes three holiday camps, has been underway since earlier this year.

Bourne Leisure herself has owned Butlin’s since 2000, when it acquired the business and its sister brands Haven Holidays and Warner Hotels in a £600 million deal.

In July, the UK’s largest private pension fund, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), confirmed a Sky News report that it was buying Butlin’s underlying real estate asset for 300 million pounds.

The sale of its operating business is notable because of the number of failed auctions triggered by turmoil in the global debt financing market.

Among the deals that have been drawn are the auctions of Parkdean Resorts, another major entertainment group, and Boots, Britain’s largest street chemist.

Butlin’s was founded by the founder of the same name, Billy Butlin, in 1936, and quickly became one of the most popular holiday destinations for Britons to stay.

According to the brand’s official history, Mr Butlin “felt sorry for the families staying in dull guest houses with nothing much to do” during a trip to Barry Island.

During its heyday, Butlin’s operated from nine locations across the UK, entertaining 1m holidaymakers every year with knee-jerk and glamorous lady competitions.

The brand has become such a fixture in the British popular consciousness that it provided the inspiration for Hi-de-Hi!, the BBC sitcom.

Its fortunes waned with the explosive growth of opportunities for Britons to holiday abroad, but have enjoyed a resurgence as the pandemic has fueled a domestic holiday boom.

Butlin’s locations are in Skegness, Minehead in Somerset and Bognor Regis, a traditional seaside town near the South Downs National Park.

Rothschild, the investment banker, is advising Blackstone on the sale of Butlin.

Blackstone declined to comment.