Parkdean Resorts: £1.6bn sale of holiday park giant stalled over slow UK growth concerns

The UK economy’s slowing growth is reported to have stalled the £1.6bn sale of Parkdean Resorts following a sixth month auction process.

The holiday parks operator and its owner Onex Corporation took the decision to call off the move amid concerns about a possible UK recession, and its impact on the staycation market.

This week, the OEDC said the UK was experiencing the slowest growth of all developed countries. 

Reported by Sky’s business guru Mark Kleinman, Parkdean said the firm is “well positioned for growth, having invested £110m into the business over the past six months”.

The statement added that due to the “broader macro economic uncertainty, the board has decided to pause the process and will revisit when the macro economic backdrop has improved.”

This comes after inflation hit nine per cent last month and interest rates were raised to one per cent, forcing many people to tighten their pursestrings and adapt to the increasingly difficult cost of living crisis. 

Many people have decided to sacrifice luxuries such as holidays and streaming subscriptions.

The crisis has also extended to cooperate transactions with doubt cast over deals for groups including Boots, Motor Fuel Group and Butlin’s, according to Sky News. 

Parkdean, which has 60 parks operating at near full capacity in the UK this year, experienced record income in 2021 as people holidayed in the UK.