Can the world’s best-known holiday resort continue in its current form?
CLUB MED was celebrated in its early days as a socialist paradise where thanks to its villages’ all-inclusive formula, money had no value. Holidaymakers are “all multimillionaires”, exclaimed Paris Match in 1965. Judging by its results, Club Med still has an anti-capitalist philosophy. It has lost about €250m ($310m) on revenues of €13 billion in the past eight years and its share price has fallen from over €120 in 2000 to €14 now. But there is no shortage of interest in the company.
Last year Club Med was the target of Bernard Tapie, a Marseilles businessman, who bought a chunk of shares and pushed for change before selling out last December. In June Fosun Group, a Chinese conglomerate, took a 7% stake. Most recently there have been reports that BMB Group, the sultan of Brunei’s investment company, wants to invest, though it has denied having direct talks with the firm. …
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