Industry News
According to the Swiss newspaper Les Temps, Vail Resorts is negotiating to buy the Swiss ski resort Crans-Montana. Crans Montana is located in the canton of Valais in the west of Switzerland. It is a beautiful but aging resort that saw its prime in the 1960s and 70s. The resort hosted the 1987 World Championships, will host the 2027 World Championships, and is a regular event venue on the FIS World Cup circuit.
The resort features 140 km (87 miles) of groomed runs spread across 50 pistes. Crans Montana exploded with apartments during its prime time, and a staggering 12,000 holiday homes were built before Switzerland changed its rules about holiday homes in mountain resorts, limiting foreign and second home ownership by Swiss nationals.
In 2013, Czech billionaire Radovan Vitek, a regular skier at the resort, purchased the lift infrastructure, which was seen as a beacon of hope for the resort that was slowly losing significance as a world-class resort. Vitek is the main shareholder of the real estate group Czech Property Investments (‘CPI’). Vitek purchased the Crans Montana Aminona Mountain Railways (‘CMA’) and parking lots, stores, and restaurants, forming the CMA Group.
However, the great anticipated investment into the infrastructure of Crans Montana did not occur. Instead, the resort was embroiled in several battles and scandals with the reclusive billionaire. Possibly frustrated by Switzerland’s tricky system of public referendums, many conflicts arose, with Vitek stopping lift operations in the middle of winter because the local municipality allegedly did not make an agreed payment to him in 2018 or CMA Group withdrawing from the Crans Montana Tourism Association, ruffling feathers with the local municipality. Vitek announced his plans to withdraw from the resort in spring 2022, and an unofficial sales prospectus made the rounds with an asking price of CHF 225 million (USD 202 million).
Rumors of potential buyers have been swirling around since then, with parties from the Gulf region and even Belgium mentioned. Now, Vail has emerged as a new potential candidate, and discussions appear to be advanced, according to Les Temps, with a deal possibly being announced by the end of this month. If Vail will stump up the asking price remains to be seen, but the international ski resort conglomerate certainly has pockets deep enough. Vitek wants CHF 80 million (USD 72 million) for the lift infrastructure alone. However, internal valuations set a fair price far below that. The local municipality had investigated buying back the lifts and estimates a fair value to be well below the asking price.
After Vail Resorts’ purchase of Andermatt, it would suggest that the conglomerate is well versed in Swiss politics and rules. Meanwhile, the municipality is looking for a partner open to input from locals. This could be the match everyone is hoping for, with Vail Resorts bringing extensive knowledge in lift operations and deep pockets to the plate. We await an official announcement from Vail Resorts in the next few days.
