Sandaya

Private Equity Manager (GP)

Case study

About the company

Sandaya is a premium outdoor leisure and hospitality group with 29 four and five-star campgrounds in France, Belgium and Spain.

Why invest

Sandaya was already a successful business when Apax Partners SA invested in the company, with full control over the value chain (land, operations, marketing). Apax Partners SA identified an opportunity to further enhance Sandaya’s operations and profitability through digitalisation, and to use Sandaya as a platform for consolidating the highly fragmented campsite market in Europe.

Our relationship

Pantheon has a long-standing relationship with Apax Partners SA dating back to the early 2000s and has completed multiple co-investments alongside the manager. Pantheon sits on the advisory boards of three Apax Partners SA funds.

Active management and value creation

Apax Partners SA monitored Sandaya for three years prior to investing in the company. Having developed a close relationship with its Founder & CEO over the years, Apax Partners SA was able to run an efficient due diligence process and submit a bid two weeks prior to the deadline.

Under Apax Partners SA ownership, the company:

• Acquired 21 additional campsites.
• Increased digital sales to 70% (vs. 30% at entry) by strengthening Sandaya’s digital marketing capabilities and the relaunch of its website.
• Increased international customer sales by 315% through distribution partnerships and branding campaigns in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.
• Showed strong resilience during the COVID-19 crisis, significantly outperforming its peers in 2020 with a limited 10% decrease in like-for-like revenues (vs. 20% for the sector).

Exit

Sandaya was acquired by InfraVia Capital Partners in March 2021.