Investment company Polar Capital and former director of Tourism Holdings David Cushing have acquired the assets of New Zealand-based car and campervan hire business JUCY Group Limited.
No financial details of the transaction have been disclosed.
A new entity, majority owned by Polar Capital and with Cushing holding a minority stake, now holds New Zealand and Australian JUCY assets.
Polar Capital is owned by Colin Neal, founder of refrigerated logistics company Big Chill which was sold to transport company Freightways (NZX: FRE) last year.
Polar Capital, which was incorporated only in March, took a stake in health and beauty retail chain Pricewise in April and provided the business with loan funding. Since then, the investor has recalled its loan, put the business into receivership and bought its assets for $NZ2.3 million.
In May Polar Capital acquired retail chain and finance business Smiths City (NZX: SCY) for $NZ60 million. The acquisition was announced just days after the company had warned store closures and job cuts were imminent.
JUCY Group announced its assets purchase agreement with Polar Capital on 13 November. The company noted that some of its businesses, JUCY Snooze, JUCY Cruise, JUCY USA, JUCY UK, Your Drive and Lucky Rentals, were not being acquired.
As part of the sale process, Grant Graham and Neale Jackson of financial advisory firm Calibre Partners were appointed as receivers to JUCY Group Limited, JUCY Holdings Limited, JUCY Rentals NZ Limited and JUCY By Design Limited.
In its announcement, JUCY Group said border closures across the three countries in which it operated it had resulted in it experiencing more than 90 per cent reduction in business revenue since March. This had forced exploration of all options to reduce operating costs including restructuring the business.
Neal said: “JUCY is an iconic brand and while the impact of covid has been devastating on JUCY Group Limited we are very excited about the acquisition and are pleased we are able to play a part in securing the future of JUCY Rentals and retaining the jobs of 150 JUCY crew.”
The new ownership entity has agreed to honour holidays booked or credits held with JUCY Rentals.
The JUCY business was founded by brothers Dan and Tim Alpe more than 20 years ago. With the onset of COVID-19 restrictions, they moved quickly to reduce costs by hibernating or closing parts of the business but soon realised external investment was needed for survival. As part of the sale agreement, they gave up their stakes in the business but Dan Alpe has been given the role of chief executive of the new entity.