Will Vail Resorts’ impress the folks from Andermatt?

The Swiss are full of common sense and when the Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris wanted to sell his company, Andermatt-Sedrun Sport AG (ASA), no Swiss was interested in it because climate change was not going to any better in the near future.

So he turned to Vail Resorts (VR) which buys just about anything and sold them 55% of ASA, a resort which is said to have some potential in central Switzerland and which is only 90 minutes from Zurich, Lucerne or Lugano. 

That elongated ski area spans from Andermatt to Sedrun, all the way to Disentis, and looks like a chopped off network of 19 ski lifts of varying ages and skiers capacity. VR will now run the lifts, most restaurants and the ski school.

After the purchases of Whistler in Canada and Perisher in Australia, this acquisition is VR’s first foray into Europe. ASA will retains 40% of the ownership stake while 5% will stay with a group of existing shareholders. 

VR’s paid about $150 millions for it, with 110 allocated for capital investments on the mountain and 40 paid to ASA to be reinvested into real estate projects around the base area. 

Mike Goar, former COO of Park City Mountain will be VP-COO of ASA. Let’s hope he doesn’t transfer the totally of his mismanagement skills to Switzerland after having crucified Park City on the altar of mediocrity last winter! 

It will be interesting to see how the incompetent VR management pulls that new acquisition off and what intensity of pain and suffering await the Andermatters.