Country Club Owner ClubCorp Being Acquired
ClubCorp, owner of the Anthem Golf & Country Club, is being acquired for $1.1 billion by Apollo Global Management, a firm that specializes in buying distressed companies. The transaction, announced in July, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
Rumors in April that Anthem Golf & Country Club itself was for sale turned out not to be true, though ClubCorp had been considering a possible sale of the entire company. The publicly traded company has struggled with disappointing earnings, slow growth and a depressed stock price, market analysts say. Apollo’s offer was a 30 percent premium over ClubCorp’s share price.
“We plan to leverage Apollo’s resources and expertise while working with ClubCorp’s dedicated team to continue to grow the business and provide the highest level of service and club offerings to members,” David Sambur, a senior partner at Apollo, said in a statement.
“We expect the transaction will have little impact on day-to-day operations, and it generally remains business as usual at all the company’s clubs and locations,” ClubCorp spokesperson Andrew Siegel told In&Out.
Siegel could not comment on Apollo’s plans, and Apollo officials did not respond to questions about any possible changes that might affect Anthem Golf & Country Club.
Golf has been in a long, slow decline. Participation is down 20 percent since 2003, according to data from the National Golf Foundation published by Bloomberg, and more than 800 courses have closed around the country in the past decade. But the latest numbers show a glimmer of hope, according to Golf Digest: In 2016, the number of new golfers rose compared to the previous year, as did the number of “committed” golfers, even as the total number of golfers fell 1.2 percent.
ClubCorp owns more than 200 golf and country clubs and other clubs in 27 states, the District of Columbia and two foreign countries. Discuss this article on Facebook >>>
