Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan to Acquire 40% Stake in European Camping Group (ECG), Leader in Outdoor Accommodation Holidays

Investment will accelerate company growth strategy

Paris, France – Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers') today announced it has agreed to acquire from The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) and Montefiore a 40% minority stake in European Camping Group (ECG), a European provider of mobile-homes holiday rentals. Carlyle and Montefiore are maintaining majority control over ECG. The transaction is expected to close during Q2 2018 and is subject to customary regulatory approval. Financial terms were not disclosed.

ECG CEO Alain Calmé said: "We are delighted to welcome Ontario Teachers' among our shareholders. Their investment will support us as we pursue our organic and external growth strategy in a market we believe has strong growth potential."

ECG generated consolidated revenues of €230 million in 2017.  As of March 30, 2018, ECG owns and operates a rental fleet of more than 20,000 units, of which more than 90% are mobile-homes. These are located across c. 300 camp sites owned by either partners or ECG, mainly in France, Italy, Spain and Croatia. As a pan-European group, almost 80% of visitors to ECG's camp sites come from outside France.

"We have been impressed with the caliber of the senior team at ECG, which has generated strong annual growth of 25% over the last 10 years by providing affordable, high quality family holidays in excellent locations in France, Spain, Italy and Croatia," said Jo Taylor, Senior Managing Director International at Ontario Teachers'. "We look forward to working with ECG's existing shareholders - Carlyle and Montefiore - as well as ECG's management team to help leverage the company's market position and plans for growth through consolidation. Ontario Teachers', which manages C$31.9 billion in private equity globally, is an experienced investor across Europe, including France. Our partnership with ECG is an example of our ability to respond quickly and decisively to investment opportunities where flexible or follow-up capital is required."

Jonathan Zafrani, Managing Director, Carlyle Europe Partners, added: "Since Carlyle's investment in ECG in 2014, the company has tripled in size, most notably through acquisitions in the UK, The Netherlands and France, and also through digital investments and by setting up its direct reservations platform. We are confident in the management team's capacity to maintain this positive momentum and we are equally delighted to welcome Ontario Teachers' alongside us for this next chapter in ECG's growth."

Eric Bismuth, President, Montefiore concluded: "ECG has been on the cutting-edge of market trends for the past 10 years, in terms of providing the best mobile-home holiday solutions and also through digital transformation in the sector. The capital investment from Ontario Teachers' will help ECG to develop partnerships more rapidly and push ahead with new acquisitions of camp sites across Europe."

Ontario Teachers' were advised by BNP Paribas for M&A diligence, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for legal matters and KPMG on financial issues and structuring.

Carlyle, Montefiore and European Camping Group were advised by Rothschild for M&A diligence, DLA Piper for legal matters & structuring and PWC on financial issues.

About European Camping Group
European Camping Group is positioned exclusively in the mobile-homes holiday market and is the European leader, generating revenues of €230 million. For the 2017 season, the group offered holiday solutions to its customers in some 20,000 units (mainly mobile-homes) across almost 300 destinations in Europe, via its five complementary brands: Eurocamp, Homair, Al Fresco, Roan and Go4Camp, and its distribution platforms Allcamps and Lux-camp.
http://www.europeancampinggroup.com

About Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) is a global alternative asset manager with $195 billion of assets under management across 317 investment vehicles (31 December 2017). Carlyle's investment objective is to create value for its investors which are mainly pension funds. Carlyle's investments are divided into 4 business segments – Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Market Strategies and Investment Solutions – deployed globally in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and North & South America. Carlyle's sectors of focus are aerospace, defence & government services, consumer & retail, energy & power, financial services, healthcare, industrial, real estate, technology & business services, telecommunications & media and transportation. Carlyle Group employs over 1,600 staff throughout its network of 31 offices across 6 continents.
Web: www.carlyle.com
Videos: http://www.carlyle.com/news-room/corporate-videos_new
Tweets: www.twitter.com/onecarlyle
Podcasts: www.carlyle.com/about-carlyle/market-commentary

About Montefiore Investment
Created in 2005, Montefiore Investment is the reference investor for small- and medium-sized service companies in France.  In 12 years, the company has demonstrated its ability to transform French SMEs into true European champions. Thanks to its strong sector expertise and know-how, Montefiore Investment successfully accompanies companies in their growth and development projects. Its performance has enabled it to establish itself as an authority in mid-market private equity. Based in Paris, Montefiore Investment currently has over €1 billion in assets under management, and invests €20-100 million per company. Among its investments: Interflora, Voyageurs du Monde or Isabel Marant. Montefiore Investment is also developing a complementary specialised real estate investment activity.
For more information: www.montefiore.fr

About Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers') invests and administers Canada's largest single-profession pension plan, with C$189.5 billion in net assets at December 31, 2017. It holds a diverse global portfolio of assets, approximately 80% of which is managed in-house, and has earned an annualized total fund net return of 9.9% since the Plan's founding in 1990. Ontario Teachers' is an independent organization headquartered in Toronto. Its Asia-Pacific region office is located in Hong Kong and its Europe, Middle East & Africa region office is in London. The defined-benefit pension is fully funded. It serves the province of Ontario's 323,000 active and retired teachers.

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Media Contacts
European Camping Group
Marion Felix & Maritxu Legendre
E: cicom@cicommunication.com
T: +33 1 47 23 90 48

Carlyle Group
Daphné Claude & Dominic Riding
E: carlyle@steeleandholt.com
T: +33 6 66 58 58 81 92 / +33 6 57 48 83 24

Montefiore Investment
Catherine Isnard
E: cicom@cicommunication.com
T: +33 1 47 23 90 48

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
For North America
Pav Jordan
E: Pav_Jordan@otpp.com
T: 1 (416) 228-6862

For Europe
Matthew Thomlinson
E: Matthew.Thomlinson@cnc-communications.com
T: +44 7908 249 266