Photo/Illutration The Huis Ten Bosch theme park (Eiji Hori)

Major travel company H.I.S. Co. announced on Aug. 30 that it was selling its stake in the Huis Ten Bosch theme park to a Hong Kong investment firm.

H.I.S. said it was selling its entire stake in the theme park, located in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, to Pacific Alliance Group (PAG) of Hong Kong for about 66.7 billion yen ($482 million).

The five other shareholders in Huis Ten Bosch, including Kyushu Electric Power Co. and Kyushu Railway Co., are expected to sell their shares as well to PAG.

A PAG subsidiary will take over operations of the theme park.

H.I.S. had a 66.7-percent stake in Huis Ten Bosch.

In 2010, H.I.S. and the five companies based in Kyushu purchased the theme park, which opened in 1992.

By moving away from an exclusively Dutch theme, management improved and in the fiscal year ending in September 2015, Huis Ten Bosch attracted 3.1 million visitors.

But the novel coronavirus pandemic had a devastating impact on tourism everywhere and for the six-month period ending in April 2022, H.I.S. recorded a net loss of 26.9 billion yen, its largest ever.

That led H.I.S. to consider selling off Huis Ten Bosch to garner funds for its own operations.

(This article was written by Go Takahashi and Hironori Kato.)

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