Will there be a mega deal in the Valais Alps? Crans-Montana is going to change ownership. Smart crashes in Golf: three seriously injured in Leilfingen

The Crans Montana Aminona (CMA) cable cars are being taken over by American ski resort giant Vail Resorts, Le Temps reports. It’s a rumor, but negotiations between the American company and the CMA are apparently already well advanced.

Who are Vail Resorts?

The US ski area giant took over the Andermatt-Sedrun ski area last year. This is the first European destination for the American listed company. Apparently investors have now got a taste for it.

In American ski areas of Vail Resorts you can easily pay 200 francs for a day ticket. There is therefore concern in Switzerland that takeovers by the group could also drive up prices in this country.

Who owns Crans-Montana?

Czech billionaire Radovan Vitek is the main shareholder of the CMA with his holding company CPI Property Group. So he will have the last word. But there have been repeated crises between Vitek and Crans-Montana in the past. In 2018, in the middle of the Easter holidays, when the resort was full of tourists, he closed the ski area due to a financial conflict with Crans-Montana and the municipalities of Icogne and Lens.

A year ago it became clear that Vitek had had enough of the Valais ski area. He is reported to have said that the railroads in Crans-Montana were not even two percent of his assets, but caused him 80 percent of his headaches.

(rbu)