3i puts coach holiday firm Shearings on the market for £40m

Apr 14 2011

3i puts coach holiday firm Shearings on the market for £40m

Posted by Jason Foster in Finance Online

3i last year appointed advisers from Deloitte to find a buyer for the company

3i, the London-listed private equity company, last year appointed advisers from Deloitte to find a buyer for the company.

But after a deal with a trade buyer failed to materialise, 3i asked PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to find a new private equity investor to back the existing management team in a buy-out from the London-listed group.

PwC had been working to advise Shearings management when Deloitte was appointed to run the sale process last year.

PwC’s new auction process will kick off shortly, said sources familiar with the matter. These sources added that “lots of potential buyers have been knocking on the door”.

3i bought Shearings, which operates a fleet of 250 coaches and a chain of 50 hotels, in 2005 from rival buy-out firm Bridgepoint Capital and merged it with Wallace Arnold, another travel and coach company.

The business is now one of Europe’s largest escorted tour operators and the second largest UK leisure hotels operator.

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