The French Invastion Continues

VINCI Park has purchased the Canadian operations of Central Parking. Here's the article we are running this month in PT:

Central completed the sale of its Canadian operations to VINCI Park. The sale includes Ideal Parking, the Company’s Canadian subsidiary, and related operations. Central Parking’s Canadian operations represented about 2.5% of total company revenues. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The portfolio includes 150 locations in major cities across Canada, including Lester B Pearson Airport in Toronto. VINCI Park becomes the second largest operator in Canada after Impark.

“The sale of our Canadian operations is another important step in the implementation of our previously announced strategic plan,” said Emanuel J. Eads, President and Chief Executive Officer. “This transaction combined with the sale last August of our operations in Europe and the planned sale of our operations in South America will largely complete our exit from international markets. International operations did not fit into our long-term strategic plan because they were not a significant part of our business and provided few, if any, operating synergies. Our exit from international markets will allow us to focus on the domestic U.S. market, which is our largest market by far and the one with the greatest potential for growth.

French based VINCI Park recently completed a 50% purchase of US based Laz Parking. This Canadian transaction increases the number of spaces it controls in Canada to over 120,000. VINCI Park operates 1,090,000 spaces in Europe and North America

The low dollar makes these purchases very attractive for European Companies. Who is next on the block?

JVH