The origins of Valtur are placed in 1964, in Rome, when Raimondo Cavalieri, director of the investment company ITALCONSULT decided to found an empire taking advantage of the beauties offered by north and south of Italy. Valtur grew to become one of the leading companies in the tourism sector and was the first Italian tour operator to design and manage directly the formula of the holiday village characterized by the Italian style, proposing village Resort and travel both in Italy and abroad, counting on the whole 20 facilities and over 230,000 customers per year.
In 1998 Valtur was bought by the Carmelo Patti, which acquired a 77% stake. The operation was carried out through Fin.Cab, the financial company of Cablelettra, one of the main suppliers of FIAT for electrical cables and various components for motor vehicles. The medium and long-term strategic objective of the Patti family was to specialize the group's activities in areas related to the development process of southern Italy. Under the new management, a revival of the Valtur was planned both nationally and internationally. To this purpose, new tourist facilities were built, and a public and private joint venture was created for the management of projects for the development of tourism in the South (the Mediterranean society Villages). However, in 2012, due to the “Golem” inquiry the heritage was confiscated from Carmelo Patti, who was accused to be a figurehead of the mafia, and then, in the same year, on June 27, the Ministry of Economic Development authorized the sale of Valtur by tender. Orovacanze s.r.l, owned by the entrepreneur Franjo Ljujidjuraj and Banca Popolare di Vicenza with a stake of 42%, participated in the auction in March 2013, getting only 5 villages and reconfirming 107 employees out of 215 after the agreement with the unions. Ljujidjuraj had an ambitious plan for the company. Thank to his previous experience in the field, he thought he could relaunch the Valtur brand by implementing a new business model focused in the franchising of the villages. The plan forecasted the opening of 10 new villages, an increase in clients from 1.7 to 2.6 million and revenues increasing from the forecasted €86 million in 2014 to 167 in 2019.
During his first two years, Franjo Ljujidjuraj was able to implement his plan and Valtur registered record sales of €100 million in 2015. However, he knew that a strong financial partner was needed to fully implement his plans. To this purpose, in April 2016, Investindustrial bought a 90% stake in the company for around €100 million. In the agreement was included also the purchase of three villages (Ostuni, Pila and Marilleva), at the time only managed by Valtur, from Prelios.
Investindustrial is a one of Europe’s leading independent investment groups focused on taking control of Souther-European medium-sized companies that are leaders in their fields. The group is controlled and managed by Andrea Bonomi, member of the historical Milanese Bonomi family and is well known for some successful investments in Europe. Among the most relevant there is Gardaland, PortaVentura (the third largest European amusement park) and Aston Martin, the British sports car maker that has recently announced a billionaire IPO by the end of 2018.
Investindustrial draw up toghether with Ljujidjuraj the business plan, pledging to invest another €100, in addition to the purchase price, for the business development. The plan saw Valtur moving from 24 to 15 structures and focusing on the increase of profitability through higher service quality, more foreign tourists and the extension of seasonality. As part of the plan, Bonomi signed with Antirion SGR the management contract of Tanka Village, the well-known Sardinian resort of Villasimius (over 900 between bungalows and apartments, for a turnover of about 20 million in 2015), subtracting it from Club Med and Alpitour, among the most famous competitors of Valtur.
Unfortunately, things did not end up going well. In December 2016, the new CEO Elena David had to deal with a disastrous budget and decided to carry out a restructuring plan that consisted in the sale of three resorts – namely, Marina di Ostuni (Brindisi), Marilleva (Trento) and Pila (Aosta) – to Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. The value of the acquisition was estimated to be around €43.5 million. This amount does not include the additional investments agreed with the partners for a value of €32.9 million, for a total deal value of over €75 million. The acquisition carried out by Cdp InvestimentiSGR aims to support the creation of a major Italian hotel chain and is part of a broader project to promote an evolution of the business model of the company through the separation of real estate business from hotel management one. Valtur retained the management of the three resorts and managed to have the assets available for 30 years by means of a sale-and-lease-back transaction.
In 1998 Valtur was bought by the Carmelo Patti, which acquired a 77% stake. The operation was carried out through Fin.Cab, the financial company of Cablelettra, one of the main suppliers of FIAT for electrical cables and various components for motor vehicles. The medium and long-term strategic objective of the Patti family was to specialize the group's activities in areas related to the development process of southern Italy. Under the new management, a revival of the Valtur was planned both nationally and internationally. To this purpose, new tourist facilities were built, and a public and private joint venture was created for the management of projects for the development of tourism in the South (the Mediterranean society Villages). However, in 2012, due to the “Golem” inquiry the heritage was confiscated from Carmelo Patti, who was accused to be a figurehead of the mafia, and then, in the same year, on June 27, the Ministry of Economic Development authorized the sale of Valtur by tender. Orovacanze s.r.l, owned by the entrepreneur Franjo Ljujidjuraj and Banca Popolare di Vicenza with a stake of 42%, participated in the auction in March 2013, getting only 5 villages and reconfirming 107 employees out of 215 after the agreement with the unions. Ljujidjuraj had an ambitious plan for the company. Thank to his previous experience in the field, he thought he could relaunch the Valtur brand by implementing a new business model focused in the franchising of the villages. The plan forecasted the opening of 10 new villages, an increase in clients from 1.7 to 2.6 million and revenues increasing from the forecasted €86 million in 2014 to 167 in 2019.
During his first two years, Franjo Ljujidjuraj was able to implement his plan and Valtur registered record sales of €100 million in 2015. However, he knew that a strong financial partner was needed to fully implement his plans. To this purpose, in April 2016, Investindustrial bought a 90% stake in the company for around €100 million. In the agreement was included also the purchase of three villages (Ostuni, Pila and Marilleva), at the time only managed by Valtur, from Prelios.
Investindustrial is a one of Europe’s leading independent investment groups focused on taking control of Souther-European medium-sized companies that are leaders in their fields. The group is controlled and managed by Andrea Bonomi, member of the historical Milanese Bonomi family and is well known for some successful investments in Europe. Among the most relevant there is Gardaland, PortaVentura (the third largest European amusement park) and Aston Martin, the British sports car maker that has recently announced a billionaire IPO by the end of 2018.
Investindustrial draw up toghether with Ljujidjuraj the business plan, pledging to invest another €100, in addition to the purchase price, for the business development. The plan saw Valtur moving from 24 to 15 structures and focusing on the increase of profitability through higher service quality, more foreign tourists and the extension of seasonality. As part of the plan, Bonomi signed with Antirion SGR the management contract of Tanka Village, the well-known Sardinian resort of Villasimius (over 900 between bungalows and apartments, for a turnover of about 20 million in 2015), subtracting it from Club Med and Alpitour, among the most famous competitors of Valtur.
Unfortunately, things did not end up going well. In December 2016, the new CEO Elena David had to deal with a disastrous budget and decided to carry out a restructuring plan that consisted in the sale of three resorts – namely, Marina di Ostuni (Brindisi), Marilleva (Trento) and Pila (Aosta) – to Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. The value of the acquisition was estimated to be around €43.5 million. This amount does not include the additional investments agreed with the partners for a value of €32.9 million, for a total deal value of over €75 million. The acquisition carried out by Cdp InvestimentiSGR aims to support the creation of a major Italian hotel chain and is part of a broader project to promote an evolution of the business model of the company through the separation of real estate business from hotel management one. Valtur retained the management of the three resorts and managed to have the assets available for 30 years by means of a sale-and-lease-back transaction.
Turning to the main economic variables in the financial statements, total debts of valtur were substantially high. More specifically, the debt of Valtur is made almost completely by payables to suppliers that sum up to almost the same level of sales in the financial years 2016 and 2015. As far as the Income Statement is concerned, in 2016 the EBITDA was strongly negative (-€38 million) because of higher personel, service and amortization costs. In 2015 instead the EBITDA figures reflected a 8% margin with respect to sales.
Because of the latest issues, it does not come unexpected the decision of Investindustrial to ask for a preventive bankruptcy declaration in March 2018. Right now the biggest fear is Valtur’s unpacking and the liquidation of all its assets.
On March 15 Il Sole 24 reported that there is no restructuring plan for Valtur, but only an agreed preventive liquidation. Investindustrial further declared: <<We will not continue to invest but will renegotiate the contracts and sell off what we manage to sell. There is no investor ready to buy the whole perimeter, the intention is to liquidate piece by piece and close>>.
Maybe now in the world of finance everyone is wondering how this decline will end, whether with a thud, or with a wave of confidence and investments but honestly everyone wants to know if they will spend their holidays in the beautiful villages of Valtur. Time needed.
Giulia di Marco