Vinci Park, which recently bought half interest in Laz Parking and through them purchased Classified in Dallas and Sunset in San Diego AND bought all of Central’s Canadian Locations, is merging with Fortis Group’s Interparking in Europe to become arguably the largest operator in the world.
Here’s the news release:
VINCI and Fortis today signed a memorandum of understanding with a view to combining their respective activities in the public car park industry. This combination would be achieved through VINCI Park, a subsidiary of VINCI Concessions, and Interparking, a subsidiary of Fortis Real Estate. Both groups would share the equity of the new entity, which would be majority owned by VINCI, Fortis retaining a significant holding. The new entity would manage 1.3 million parking places in 1,800 car parks in 16 countries worldwide.
The two companies have a complementary set of activities. VINCI Park is the European car park industry leader and a major player worldwide with a strong presence in various countries in Europe – especially France, the UK and Spain – and in North America. Interparking is Europe’s third biggest car park operator with a large base of freehold properties and a strong presence in Benelux, Spain, Germany, Austria and Italy.
This combination would be an excellent opportunity to strengthen the new player’s presence in a number of key markets, thereby benefiting from increased brand awareness. Furthermore, it will increase the pool of expertise, to deliver the best and most innovative service to its customers.
The new entity will have better access to the financial resources needed to invest in newly developing markets and should become an even more dynamic player in the international public parking industry.
Anyone who doesn’t think that these folks are a player is not reading the right cup of tea leaves… I interviewed Philippe Princet, Vinci’s VP of International Operations a couple of weeks ago. He’s a charming Frenchman, and understands the parking business. He believes in local control — the money quote in the interview — "You will never see a French guy running a non French operation." Watch for the entire interview in the July Issue of PT.
JVH
