One of the leading mid market private equity specialists in the United Kingdom, Graphite Capital, had recently sold off Park Holidays UK. Park Holidays is the fourth largest operator of caravan parks in the country. The buyer is Caledonia Investments, which is a a UK investment trust company, for the price tag of GBP172 million,

With this sale, the total value of sales conducted by Graphite since October 22 topped GBP1 billion. Graphite was able to sell seven companies over the given period netting GBP579.3 million of equity value from a start up cost of GBP202.3 million. The return on the sale netted the firm a total of 2.9 times its original cost.

The assets owned by Park Holidays UK include 21 freehold and two leasehold caravan parks having about 9,000 pitches located in the southern England area. The firm sells caravans as well as hires caravans to both owners and holiday makers. The company was established in 1985 and came to be owned by Graphite through a GBP130 million buy in/management buyout deal in January of 2006. Graphite for its first move, appointed a skilled management team headed by current CEO Jeff Sills.

Graphite has been working closely with its management team to strengthen its business base and support the acquisition of six new parks located in the southwestern areas of england between 2006 and 2008. Since its buyout, the quality of services provided in the parks have been substantially upgraded as well as undertaking a company expansion in its holiday lettings business throughout its park portfolio, The turnover during this period had more than doubled to GBP84 million and its EBITDA increased by 72% to GBP20.4 million. Even at the economic downturn, Park Holidays UK was very resilient, as seen with its yearly increase in its EBITDA since 2008 recession.