Mahindra Holidays & Resorts has acquired a 19 per cent stake in Holiday Club Resorts Oy of Finland. The acquisition will be completed in a month. Mahindra Holidays did not disclose how much it paid.

It has also signed definitive agreements to increase its ownership over two years, with the balance to be acquired by September 2016.

The share of private investors, who own 74 per cent of the unlisted Finnish company, will come down to 62 per cent while that of employees, who hold 26 per cent, will drop to about 18 per cent after the the deal. MHRIL will initially get one seat on the board of Holiday Club Resorts, but will see a gradual rise with the increase in its stake.

European entry The acquisition will enable Mahindra Holidays to enter the European market and leverage Holiday Club’s expertise in the vacation ownership model, MHRIL said in a statement. It said the combined entity has the potential to become the largest vacation ownership company outside the United States.

Arun Nanda, Chairman, Mahindra Holidays, said: “This acquisition is part of a larger vision to widen our international footprint. We are excited at the prospect of expanding in Europe and West Asia along with Holiday Club. We are confident that synergies from this acquisition will fuel and propel our future growth.”

Holiday Club is a vacation ownership company in Europe, with 32 resorts and nearly 2,800 rooms. The Finnish company’s inventory is bigger than Mahindra Holidays’ 41 resorts and 2,500 rooms, but it has only 50,000 members as compared to 171,000 members for Mahindra.

comment COMMENT NOW