Brussels, 20 December 2017 – The Looping Group (“Looping”), backed by Ergon Capital Partners III (“Ergon”) and Bpifrance, announces that it has reached an agreement with Mota-Engil SGPS for the acquisition of Rio Tâmega, Turismo e Recreio (“RTA”) whose main activity is the operation of Parque Aquático Amarante (“Amarante”).
Located in the North of Portugal, near Porto, Parque Aquático Amarante is a regional aquatic park with family slides, paddling pools and an indoor wave pool, which attracted around 150,000 visitors this year.
Amarante is the fourteenth park and first park in Portugal for the Looping Group. It is the third add-on acquisition since Ergon entered as the new anchor investor of the Group, after the acquisition of the German attraction park Fort Fun last April and of the French animal park Zoo de La Flèche last month.
Laurent Bruloy, CEO of Looping, commented: “We are very pleased to welcome RTA and its employees in our Group. This strategic acquisition will further reinforce our Southern platform alongside Isla Magica and our exposure to the aquatic segment, one of the four strategic pillars of Looping. We strongly believe we have the expertise to help this park reach its full potential with future investments”.
Wolfgang de Limburg, Managing Partner of Ergon, added: “Ergon is enthusiastic about this third add-on acquisition this year by Looping. We remain keen to further build Looping, through further selective market consolidation, into a Pan-European leader in the regional amusement parks market”.
***
About Looping
Created in 2011, Looping is a leading operator of regional amusement parks in Europe. The group consists of 14 parks located in France, Switzerland, Netherlands, UK, Spain, Portugal and Germany. Proforma of the acquisition of Zoo de la Flèche and RTA, Looping will count around 3.6 million visitors per annum for a turnover of approximately €82.5 million.
For more information on Looping, please visit www.looping-group.com.
About RTA
RTA recorded sales of approximately €2.5 million and attracted around 150,000 visitors this year in its aquatic park, Parque Aquático Amarante, located in the North of Portugal, near Porto.
For more information on Parque Aquático Amarante, please visit www.parqueaquaticoamarante.com.
About Mota-Engil
Founded in 1946, the Mota-Engil Group is today a multinational with operations focused on construction and infrastructure management in the segments of Engineering and Construction, Environment and Services, Transport Concessions, Energy and Mining.
As a leader in Portugal with a consolidated position within the 30 largest European construction groups, Mota-Engil is present on 3 continents and in 28 countries, in 3 distinct geographical areas - Europe, Africa and Latin America -
, maintaining the same standards of strict compliance, quality and capacity for execution in each market.
With holdings in approximately 280 companies, Mota-Engil develops a unique and integrated strategic vision for its future: a more international, innovative and competitive Group at a global scale.
About Ergon
Ergon Capital Partners III is a mid-market private equity investment company with ~€500 million under management backed by family-controlled Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, through its fully-owned subsidiary Sienna Capital, as cornerstone investor, and selected European institutional investors. Ergon is a disciplined and discreet value investor, which provides “patient and friendly capital” to entrepreneurs and managers, who need capital and industrial solutions to accelerate the development of their companies. Ergon makes equity investments from €25 million up to €75 million in leading companies with a sustainable competitive position in attractive niche markets located in the Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Iberia and Switzerland. Ergon is advised by Ergon Capital Advisors which has offices in Brussels, Paris, Munich, Milan and Madrid.
Since its inception in 2005, Ergon, together with its two preceding investment programs, invested in 18 companies (of which 5 in the Benelux, 7 in Italy, 2 in France, 1 in Spain and 3 in Germany) and has completed 27 add-on acquisitions for a total aggregate transaction value in excess of €3 billion. Ergon’s current portfolio consist of 8 companies in various sectors encompassing luxury, specialty retail, industrial manufacturing and services, healthcare, media, leisure and gastronomy.
For more information on Ergon, please visit www.ergoncapital.com.
About Bpifrance
Bpifrance, a subsidiary of the French state and the Caisse des Dépôts and the entrepreneurs’ trusted partner, finances businesses from the seed phase to IPO, through loans, guarantees and equity investments. Bpifrance also provides operational services and strong support for innovation, export, and external growth in partnership with Business France. Bpifrance offers to businesses a large range of financing opportunities at each key step of their development, including offers adapted to regional specificities. With its 47 regional offices (90% of decisions are made locally), Bpifrance represents a strategic tool for economic competitiveness dedicated to entrepreneurs. Bpifrance acts as a back- up for initiatives driven by the French State and the Regions to tackle 3 goals: contributing to SME’s growth, preparing tomorrow’s competitiveness, and contributing to the development of a positive entrepreneur ecosystem.
With Bpifrance, businesses benefit from a powerful, efficient and close representative to answer all their needs in terms of financing, innovation and investment.
For more information on Bpifrance, please visit www.bpifrance.fr – Follow us: @Bpifrance - @BpifrancePresse.
Our manifesto: contributing to the development of sustainable finance
To succeed with this strategy, Apheon believes a holistic and collective approach is fundamental.
Holistic: it is essential that all aspects of ESG are equally and continuously supported. This is why we are active at every stage of the investment cycle by applying proprietarily developed methodologies and initiatives which are built on 5 priorities covering the broad ESG spectrum: