UK higher education’s largest pension fund has invested in the Butlin’s holiday resorts chain as it seeks to shore up its finances post-pandemic.
The Universities Superannuation Scheme has signed a ground-rent deal worth £300 million with the Bourne Leisure Group to acquire the real estate assets of the brand’s three sites in Skegness, Minehead and Bognor Regis.
USS – whose joint negotiating committee recently pushed through cuts to members' post-retirement benefits – said that the deal will provide the cashflows needed to pay pensions in the future but it will have no involvement in the day-to-day running of Butlin’s operations. A statement said that this type of agreement “is increasingly common in the hospitality and leisure industry”.
