CVC Capital Partners is to buy the Greek, Croatian and the UAE businesses of D-Marin, an operator of marinas in the Mediterranean and UAE, from the Doğuş Group.
The deal was the first for CVC in the marina sector, with other holdings including a stake in Merlin Entertainment and a South Korean hotel booking app.
D-Marin operates premium yacht marinas in Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Turkey and the UAE under concessions or management agreements. Its three marinas in Turkey will remain under the ownership of Doğuş Group, while managed by D-Marin.
István Szőke, managing partner, CVC Capital Partners, said: “As our first investment in the sector, we have been attracted to D-Marin given it is a geographically-diversified operator of well-invested premium marinas in the Mediterranean and the UAE. Using CVC's global network and experience in growing companies internationally, we intend to create the leading global premium marina operating company through both organic growth and acquisitions.”
Burak Baykan, CEO, D-Marin, said: “I am proud of the success achieved by D-Marin to date. Working with Doğuş Group we have put in place a solid foundation, on which we will now plan to build a global group. We are delighted to have secured the support of CVC, a leading global investor, to expand D-Marin internationally and take the company to the next level.”
Doğuş Holding has been undertaking a series of disposals over the past year. The company has interests including restaurants, entertainment outlets, marinas and car-distribution businesses and was seeking to reduce its €2.3bn of restructured debt to below €2bn last year and to €1.5bn by the end of 2020 through the sales.