Ratanga Junction, which has opened for the June July school holidays for the first time in three years, has acquired new owners and with it a new lease on life.

Nedbank Group has sold Cape Theme Parks, the company that owns Ratanga Junction, to Century City Property Developments (Pty) Ltd, which plans to aggressively grow the theme park and related conference and function business, the companies announced in a joint statement issued yesterday.

This follows Century City Property Developments (Pty) Ltd's purchase last year of the assets and remaining undeveloped land at Century City from Nedbank.

Nedbank Group’s sale of Ratanga Junction and Century City forms part of its stated strategy of disposing of its non-core assets.

“We are delighted that Ratanga Junction will continue to operate and we understand the new owners have exciting plans for its future,” says John Bestbier, head of Mergers and Acquisitions of Nedbank.

Greg Deans, managing director of Century City Property Developments, said they were still planning the future development of the land acquired and believed they could inject new energy and vitality into Ratanga Junction.

"We are formulating plans to improve on the theme park's financial performance and to maximize all its assets. In this regard we are particularly excited about the potential of Ratanga Island and will be going all out to build up the existing, year-round banqueting and conference business."

He said Ratanga Junction theme park formed an integral part of the overall Century City development and trademark and would be developed as part of a holistic lifestyle estate combining leisure, residential, retail and commercial components in an integrated pleasing environment.

In terms of the deal, the continued employment of Ratanga's permanent staff has been secured.

The acquisition is effective as of 1 June 2005, subject to Competitions Commission approval.

Publisher: Cape Business News
Source: Cape Business News