Vail Buys Andermatt - Majority Ownership

ChrisC

ChrisC

Well-known member
I guess the ski resort consolidation on a global scale was inevitable. However, this is almost like Vail buying Mad River Glen. The Gemsstock sector is a low-capacity wonderland that preserves powder for literally days. That cannot be said about many places in the 2020s. Hopefully, they do not mess with that sector of Andermatt.

Although I am not sure how beneficial this is to Vail. I am sure 99% of Epic Pass Holders could not even identify Andermatt as a ski mountain, much less use the benefit.

This could setup an "Epic" Euro road trip: 3 Valleys, Verbier, Dolomites and Andermatt.

Vail Resorts to Acquire Majority Stake in and Operate Andermatt-Sedrun Sport AG, a Leading Swiss Resort | Vail Resorts, Inc.

The Investor Relations website contains information about Vail Resorts, Inc.'s business for stockholders, potential investors, and financial analysts.
investors.vailresorts.com
 
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Dolomites are on Ikon as well as Epic. Chamonix, Zermatt and Kitzbuhel are Ikon only.

From that article I suspect that the Andermatt/Sedrun connection is what interests Vail the most. Gemsstock is about as un-Vail-like a mountain as I can imagine.
 
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For Euro-land this is on the edge of big(ger) name vs 2nd tier. I suspect Vail is getting it's toes wet and trying to figure out the Euro market in more detail with this 55% ownership. There are plenty of sectors filled with trams, gondolas and high speed 6 packs at Andermatt too.
 
EMSC said:
For Euro-land this is on the edge of big(ger) name vs 2nd tier. I suspect Vail is getting it's toes wet and trying to figure out the Euro market in more detail with this 55% ownership. There are plenty of sectors filled with trams, gondolas and high speed 6 packs at Andermatt too.
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Vail does not really have too many options to buy/invest in Europe. They should do an investment/relationship with the Compagnie des Alpes:

The mountain resorts managed by Compagnie des Alpes are located exclusively in the French Alps. They are among the biggest and most renowned in the world (La Plagne, Les Arcs, Tignes, Val d’Isère, Méribel, Les Menuires, Serre Chevalier, Grand Massif, etc.) and make Compagnie des Alpes one of the world’s leading mountain resort players. The Group also has a stake in the Megève, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, Avoriaz, Rosière and Valmorel resorts.

Good luck with a place like Zermatt - it's owned by 3 ancient valley families. Verbier is likely similar.


In Andermatt, you have a transactional owner:

Samih Sawiris, has invested over CHF 1.3 billion into the surrounding base area and over CHF 150 million into the ski resort,


There are some areas of the Gemsstock that could be upgraded. The base-to-mid mountain tram could be replaced with a gondola. Also, the t-bar was always scheduled for an upgrade of some type. However, you do not want to change the summit access tram/capacity.

The Andermatt-Sedrun complex is standard Vail. There are direct trains from Zurich that end in a train station that is directly integrated into the access gondola. Quite impressive.
 
Sbooker said:
I had previously thought that t
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jamesdeluxe said:
Are there any other examples of this? I always assumed that ski areas had to choose to participate in one mega pass or the other -- or maybe that's only in North America.
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I guess exclusivity was never negotiated. The Dolomites include so many operators/resorts - it might be hard to get everyone in agreement.

I believe every resort in Chile, Japan, Australia is exclusive.
 
The Dolomites are the only ski resorts that are on both Epic and Ikon. I believe there are 12 different operators of lifts, and it's surely the most difficult region to define what a ski area is. I made my subjective judgments in 2018 based more on geography, lodging bed bases, etc.

FYI the Arlberg has 7 different lift operators IIRC.

I would guess that Compagnie des Alpes has less than zero interest in letting Vail get a toehold in the French Alps.
 
Tony Crocker said:
The Dolomites are the only ski resorts that are on both Epic and Ikon. I believe there are 12 different operators of lifts, and it's surely the most difficult region to define what a ski area is. I made my subjective judgments in 2018 based more on geography, lodging bed bases, etc.

FYI the Arlberg has 7 different lift operators IIRC.

I would guess that Compagnie des Alpes has less than zero interest in letting Vail get a toehold in the French Alps.
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Now I know the the one crowd owns all those huge resorts the deal I mentioned in the other thread makes sense.

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