International Corporate Finance

INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE FINANCE EXTERNAL CONTRIBUTORS

Homair Vacances,

lessons from a success story

In less than ten years, Montefiore Invest-

ment has turned Homair Vacances from a

French SME to a European leader in the

leisure industry. A perfect case study?

The Homair adventure illustrates well

Montefiore Investment’s philosophy. Its

Partners had barely launched the first

fund, and were actively looking for hid-

den treasures in which to invest. This

was a long-term undertaking designed

to identify ahead of others those sectors

at the crossroads of fundamental changes

generating opportunities.

In Homair Vacances, a small business

based in Aix-en-Provence that specia-

lized in upscale camping, Montefiore

found a company meeting their expec-

tations. The founder, Daniel Guez, a 59

year old, was considering retirement,

which was well deserved for this entre-

preneur who had a turnover at the time

of nearly €18 million, and an EBITDA

of €6.7 million. He was much liked by

his teams, benefited from an excellent

reputation in the camping industry, and

had been able to establish a profitable

business while delivering excellent

consumer experience to customers

looking for a high level of comfort at an

affordable price.

Homair Vacances was positioned in the

center of three fundamental waves related

to technology, distribution and business

models. First, the mobile home, which

first appeared in the United Kingdom in

the 1990s, represented a genuine techno-

logical breakthrough in the camping wor-

ld. At the time Homair was selling almost

100% mobile-home holidays. Secondly,

at the time, internet distribution only

represented one per cent of the market.

Homair was already drawing 20% of its

bookings through this channel. Finally,

his company had the potential to trans-

form the camping business model and

convert camp sites into true leisure re-

sorts able to meet the new expectations of

an increasingly demanding clientele.

“Our starting idea was to identify a sui-

table platform for creating a leading French

company in the sector capitalizing on these

three major developments,” explains Éric

Bismuth. While ensuring that Daniel Guez

would remain at the helm for an additio-

nal few years, the Montefiore team initially

bet €8 million on the company, bought out

OUR STARTING IDEA

WAS TO IDENTIFY

A SUITABLE PLATFORM

FOR CREATING A

LEADING FRENCH

COMPANY IN THE

SECTOR CAPITALISING

ON THESE THREE MAJOR

DEVELOPMENTS