Vacasa CEO on Delisting: 'That’s Not Going to Happen'

06.12.2023 - 04:39 / skift.com / Srividya Kalyanaraman / Rob Greyber / Steve Milo

You read it here first: Swiss travel investor Viadi Group has acquired British luxury villa rental marketplace, Edge Retreats. 

Based in London, venture-backed Edge Retreats was founded in 2013 and has a portfolio of 6,500 villas across over 50 countries. 

Founded in 2022 by Swiss real estate and travel investors Auret van Zyl and Oliver Corkhill, Viadi Group acquired majority stake in villa rentals company in the Carribbean, WhereToStay.com in January this year, and experiential tour operator, Explorations Company last year in 2022. 

“The big picture is that the dry up of investment capital for pre-profitability companies is real, and is creating opportunities for companies that have cash,” said Carl Shepherd, the co-founder of HomeAway and board member on Edge Retreats.

Swiss Investor Viadi Group Buys Luxury Villa Operator Edge Retreats

Will Vacasa get delisted because its share price has dipped below $1 for an extended period? “That’s not going to happen,” CEO Rob Greyber said at the Skift Short-Term Rental Summit in New York City last week. “I’m not concerned about that. There are different rules that exchanges have. That’s not something we are really focused on. We have plans to manage all those types of things.” In May, Vacasa shareholders approved a measure giving the board the option of executing a reverse stock split, which would presumably cure the problem. 

Meanwhile, when Sonder likewise received a delisting notice from Nasdaq, in late April, and the company noted that it had until October 18 to regain compliance, and could gain an additional 180 days to comply if it transitioned its shares to the Nasdaq Capital Market. 

In other Vacasa news, the board entered into new shareholder director designation agreements with major shareholders Silver Lake, Level Equity, Riverwood, and “EB”/Mossytree (associated with Vacasa founder Eric Breon). Like the agreement that expired June 6, the new agreement gives these parties the right to nominate board directors as long as they maintain certain stock ownership levels. Unlike the prior agreement, the new pact does not require these shareholders to vote for one another’s nominees.

Only on Skift: Executives speaking at the recent Skift Short-Term Rental Summit offered no shortage of predictions about the future of the industry, and here’s a noteworthy quote.

“We all know that part of the biggest problem with guest satisfaction is that the product is not optimized right. In many cases, we talk about vacation homes — they’re retrofitted second homes and those second homes were never really built to be a vacation rental,” said CEO of VTrips Steve Milo. 

The Future of Short-Term Rentals: Industry Leaders Look Ahead at Skift Summit

New This Morning:  Incre