The $22 billion superannuation fund Sunsuper is buying the remaining 70 per cent interest of Discovery Holiday Parks that it does not already own in a deal believed to be worth about $240 million, sources have said.
Discovery counts Sydney-based private equity firms Next Capital and Allegro, as well as investment bank Macquarie among the co-owners with Sunsuper, and is believed to be worth between $300m and $400m.
Sunsuper’s move comes after the company has been in talks with other potential suitors, such as retirement village operator Ingenia and West Australian-based Aspen Property Group, about a potential trade sale or stock exchange listing of the business in the past year.
Discovery is one of Australia’s largest owners of holiday parks and mining camps, with 30 properties under its ownership, with some sites seen by industry players as a development play.
Sunsuper, based in Brisbane, is Queensland’s largest super fund by membership, with more than one million members.
In November Macquarie sold the 44 per cent stake it owned in the $550 million Australian aged-care provider Regis back to its original founders, Ian Roberts and Bryan Dorman, in a deal advised by Greenhill.