The American Skiing Company has finally concluded the sale of its last resort to Talisker Corporatin and announced that it will cease trading once all obligations are completed. The company was established a little over a decade ago by entrepreneur Les Otten who began as an employee of Killington resort in Vermont.
Otten then became manager of the fledgling Sunday River resort, owned by Killington at the time, brought it up to international standard and became its owner.
Otten then began buying other areas in New England including Killington and Sunday River’s neighbour Sugarloaf – two of the last ski areas to be sold during the company’s period of decline. After establishing the American Skiing Company Otten extended his resort empire across the US to encompass 10 resorts including Heavenly (sold to Vail) in California and Steamboat (sold to Intrawest) in Colorado. The company took on a small ski hill near Park City, Park West, renamed it The Canyons, and grew it to be one of the largest ski areas in North America.
The Canyons was sold for $123 million to a subsidiary of Toronto-based resort operator Talisker Corporation. The resort had been put up for sale a year ago and initially attracted interest from Vail. In all, American Skiing raised about $600 million by selling its resorts, using the money to pay off debt and compensate preferred shareholders who wanted the company to be closed down. Talisker own interests in the two other Park City ski areas, Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort leading to unconfirmed speculation that the chances of a ski link between the three resorts, creating North America’s largest single ski area, may increase.
www.taliskercorp.com