One of Disneyland Paris's resorts looks set to get a new owner. (Photo by Salvatore Romano/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

NurPhoto via Getty Images

Abu Dhabi's leading sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Capital, has made a $1.1 billion bid for listed French leisure operator Pierre & Vacances-Center Parcs, owner of a groundbreaking resort on the fringes of Disneyland Paris which was developed by one of the media giant's most renowned design wizards.

Mubadala is a diversified investment giant operating in more than 50 countries across six continents with $430 billion of assets under management. It owns K-MAC Enterprises – the second-largest Taco Bell franchisee in the United States – and is a prominent investor in iconic fast-food chain Whataburger as well as Alphabet's self-driving technology subsidiary Waymo.

Pierre & Vacances fits perfectly in its portfolio due to its popularity, heritage and scale. Founded in 1967, the company now operates more than 45,000 apartments, houses and villas at 330 sites in Europe. Last year they welcomed nearly 8 million customers generating $2.2 billion (€1.9 billion) in revenue leaving the company with a $46.7 million (€41 million) net profit.

Pierre & Vacances' most well-known brand of vacation destinations is Center Parcs which are famous across Europe for being nestled in forests and having water parks set inside huge transparent domes.

One of the company's biggest sites is the 640 acre Les Villages Nature Paris which is just four miles away from Disneyland Paris. The eco-resort opened its doors in 2017 and was originally a 50-50 joint venture between Disneyland Paris and Pierre & Vacances. No expense was spared.

On the opening day Pierre & Vacances announced that "investment for the first phase of development totals approximately €500 million [$570 million], and has seen 868 of a total 1,083 apartments and cottages ready."

Pierre & Vacances manages the resort and developed its business model where the cottages and apartments are sold to private individual investors and leased back. Disneyland Paris' contribution was creating the resort's entertainment and storytelling. This was spearheaded by landscape architect Thierry Huau and Joe Rohde, one of Disney's famed Imagineers who are named after their imaginative use of engineering. Before he retired in 2021, Rohde was vice president of creative at Imagineering and led the design of Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando which is widely regarded as the media giant's most rustic theme park.

Villages Nature clearly has his hallmarks as its countryside landscape is dotted with farmhouses, lakes and sculpted scrubland. In stark contrast to the squeaky-clean environment of the nearby theme parks, rubble stands beside its dusty paths as they have actually been carved into the landscape. Instead of just having street lights, luminous orbs hang from the branches of trees making it seem like they are floating when they are illuminated at night. Smaller spheres sit on waist-height stalks at the entrance to each housing complex giving the surroundings an otherworldly atmosphere. There's nothing artificial about the flora and fauna.

A total of 28,000 new trees and 430,000 new shrubs were planted to enhance biodiversity on the site. Existing woodlands were conserved and 12,000 tons of CO2 was avoided during construction through the use of timber and low-carbon concrete. According to Pierre & Vacances, by 2018, Villages Nature was home to 92 protected species with nine beehives producing 400 kilograms of honey each year.

In line with its green credentials, Villages Nature is a car-free zone. Bicycles and golf carts can be rented and free electric shuttle buses ferry guests throughout the resort's five areas.

BelleVie Farm is a traditional French farm with cows, goats and ponies under its wooden sloping roofs. It hosts bread-making classes and wine tastings as well as archery lessons and pony rides for kids. The Extraordinary Gardens area spans five acres and features plants which flower year-round. The Lakeside Promenade is a collection of restaurants and shops including a super market so guests can eat in if they prefer. Walking around the Forest of Legends play area makes little ones feel like Ewoks, the cuddly tree-dwelling critters from Star Wars. Set in a forest, it has tree-top trails and zip lines between the branches.

The highlight of the five areas is Aqua Mundo, one of Europe's largest covered water parks. Anyone who has been to Disney’s theme park complex in Orlando will remember its extravagantly-themed water parks which are based on a ski resort and tropical hideaway. For decades Disneyland Paris was rumored to be getting a counterpart called Lava Lagoon, which was expected to feature slides snaking out of an artificial volcano underneath a massive dome. Unfortunately, it never made it off the drawing board but Aqua Mundo makes up for it.

The 11,500 square meter park largely sits inside an angular building which looks like huge shards of glass piled on top of each other. They create layers with terraced walkways on top of them allowing hikers to climb around the outside of the soaring structure.

Inside, the height of the atrium means that it isn’t stuffy or humid as is often the case in indoor water parks. It is themed to a mountain spring with lush plants which hang off the rock walls and sprout up from between the seven water slides. They are up there with the best in the United States.

One launches riders down a slope then up the steep sides of a giant funnel at the bottom. Another uses jets of water to shoot them through a network of clear tubes around the rafters. It’s not for anyone with vertigo as the tubes are so high up that the guests down below look like tiny dots.

A more relaxing experience is found in the on-site spa with its salt cabin, hammam, saunas and multi-sensory relaxation rooms. It's even more serene outside. That's because the indoor pools connect to a vast outdoor infinity lagoon with water which constantly flows over the edges making it look like it’s endless. Thanks to some magic behind the scenes, the 2,500 square meter space is heated to 90 degrees so it’s toasty even when it’s blustery outside.

Two wells tap into an aquifer 1,900 meters underground to extract warm water for the park and also provide 40% of the heating needs for Disneyland Paris as well as some of its on-site hotels. This highly innovative geothermal energy system enables the water park to have a carbon footprint of almost zero. It proves that the resort's eco tagline isn't marketing mumbo jumbo.

Guests don't directly benefit from this but it's a different story with other technology in the park as a waterproof wireless wristband is used to open the lockers, pay in the shops and restaurants and open the doors to the cottages and apartments. The latter are in futuristic blocks which are covered in climbing plants and are topped with elaborate weather vanes. In contrast, the cottages have sloping roofs and round windows making them look like they have come from the pages of a fairytale. Inside they are bang up to date.

They have fully-fitted kitchens and lounges which give on to glorious sun decks. Some cottages sit on the banks of a river and it isn’t uncommon to see swans strutting past the patio doors in the mornings.

The furnishings have a Scandinavian style with wooden floors, cream-colored sofas and stone counter-tops. There’s free wi-fi throughout the cottages which can comfortably sleep a family of four. It doesn’t take long for guests to feel at home as they come with a full-size dinner table for families to gather round and a big television opposite with international channels. The local patisserie even delivers baguettes, jam and orange juice to the doorstep in the morning.

In 2018, Disneyland Paris upgraded Villages Nature's status from an external partner hotel to what was known as a Disney Nature Resort. However, it didn't last long. Four years later Disneyland Paris sold its 50% stake in the venture to Pierre & Vacances and the resort now occupies a special place on the Disneyland Paris website where it is shown as neither an on-site Disney Hotel nor an external partner hotel. Instead, it is in a category of its own and guests get many of the same perks as those at the on-site hotels such as early entry to the parks and free parking there.

A recent extension added 33,000 square meters of cottages and there could be more to come. Last week the Pierre & Vacances board unanimously welcomed Mubadala's offer of up to €2 per share valuing the company at $1.1 billion (€1 billion). Filing of the tender offer is expected to occur during the first quarter of 2027 and Pierre & Vacances will be delisted from the French Euronext on completion of the deal.

Antoun Ghanem, partner at Mubadala Capital, said the offer reflects the company's "conviction in the European leisure and hospitality sector and in the long-term potential of the group's brands". He added that Mubadala Capital will support "the execution of the group's strategic plan, providing long-term capital and operational partnership."

This doesn't just raise the possibility of expansion in the company's heartland of Europe but also in Mubadala's home country, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where wellness resorts and sustainability are high on the leisure agenda.

Abu Dhabi has built an entire district, called Masdar City, which blends ancient Arabic architecture with cutting-edge green technology to minimize energy, water and waste. Likewise, nearby Dubai is currently building Therme Dubai, which is set to become the world’s tallest wellbeing and thermal resort. This $545 million (AED2 billion) tower is designed to rise 100 meters and will feature three distinct wellness zones, multi-sensory saunas and three 18-meter waterfalls.

Elsewhere in Dubai, retail, real estate and entertainment conglomerate Majid Al Futtaim is developing Ghaf Woods, the city's first woodland community which will have more trees than residents. The sprawling upscale complex will be filled with forests, mountain bike trails, a botanical garden and a wellness and yoga pavilion.

A development like Villages Nature would fit in well with this line up and would help Abu Dhabi achieve its aim of adding 18,000 new hotel rooms by 2030. Around 1,000 of them will be built on the leisure-focused Yas Island as this report revealed. The destination is due to get a Disney park which would make a local Pierre & Vacances outpost even more of a fairytale partnership.