The owner of Away Resorts, one of Britain’s biggest holiday park operators, is plotting a sale of the business ahead of an expected surge in British staycationing this summer.

Sky News has learnt that Freshstream, the private equity firm which bought control of Away Resorts in 2019, is lining up bankers to oversee an auction of the business.

The timing and value of a sale process were unclear on Thursday, although industry sources said that Rothschild was expected to be appointed to oversee it in the coming days.

Away Resorts owns well-known holiday parks such as Whitecliff Bay on the Isle of Wight and Sandy Balls in the New Forest.

It recently bought a site in St Ives, Cornwall, to add to its portfolio.

In total, its parks host roughly 200,000 holidaymakers in a ‘normal’ year, with demand having surged for bookings this summer as lockdown measures are eased.

Industry groups have predicted that staycationing Britons are likely to inject billions of pounds of additional spending into regional economies around the country this year.

Freshstream bought a controlling stake in Away Resorts from LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, Britain’s biggest high street lender.

Bankers expect a number of the company’s larger peers to be sold in the next 18 months.

A Freshstream spokesman declined to comment.

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