bio > Compagnie des Alpes
Compagnie des Alpes (CdA) has interests ranging from ski lifts to theme parks. CdA run 7 of the 12 top French ski resorts including les Arcs, la Plagne, Tignes, Val d'Isere, Argentiere (les Grands Montets), Flaine and Méribel Mottaret. The last two were acquired when they took control of Méribel Alpina. Ski lift services in winter accounted for 92% of fiscal 2000 revenues and ski lift services in summer, 8%. CdA was created by the Caisse des Dépôts at the end of the 1980s as a public interest company to assist a number of ski stations in financial difficulty. Since 1994 it has been listed on the French second market. The Caisse des Dépôts - Développement (C3D) and indirectly, the French state, is still the major shareholder but recently the American ski group Intrawest took a 7.4% shareholding.
Saint Chaffrey (Serre Chevalier 1350) has given the franchise of its ski domain to the Compagnie des Alpes. The franchise will last 30 years, this is a typical length and is about the lifetime of a ski lift. Serre Chevalier is financially troubled and requires major investments to upgrade its ski area. The first cable car was installed during the Second World War in 1942. CdA will invest some 30 millions over a six year period.
The CdA is also becomes a shareholder in the private/public partnership (SEM) of Serre Chevalier Ski Développement which runs the other areas in the domain: Briançon, La Salle and Monetier. CdA hopes it will be able to better coordiante the development and running of the whole ski area.
St Chaffrey has 60km of pistes located between 1350m and 2500m altitude and served by 21 ski lifts. During 2003/2004 the turnover was 9.2 Million for 500.000 skier/days.
Compagnie des Alpes and its subsidiary SAG (Société dAménagement Arve-Giffre) have just signed a an agreement with the Canadian operator Intrawest to develop 2,500 tourist beds at Flaine in the Haute Savoie. This follows an initial project between the two groups> signed in June 2000 which led to the creation of 3,800 beds at Les Arcs 1950
The Compagnie des Alpes looks set to pay 36 million euros for a 90% stake in les Deux Alpes lift and property operator Deux Alpes Loisirs.
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