Center Parcs, the short-break holiday operator, has been admitted to Aim. Within the space of a week, a consortium led by Collins Stewart comprising 30 institutional investors raised £245m to buy out Center Parcs' previous venture capital owners, Ocean Capital Partners, and placed the company on the Aim. Center Parcs, which has four 'villages' scattered throughout various forests in England, is using Aim as a stop-gap as it intends to move to full listing early next year. 'We used Aimfor speed and the procedure is less onerous', says Center Parcs' chief executive Martin Dalby. For the year to end-April, Center Parcs generated sales of £160.7m and reported a pre-tax profit of £35.3m, excluding any contribution from its Elveden site in Suffolk, which was closed due to a fire. According to Dalby, in the period to September, net sales at the three other sites have increased 11.7% and bookings at the reopened Elveden are ahead of budget. With its focus on a 'subtropical swimming paradise', Center Parcs claims it has no direct competitor in the UK. It is considering creating another site but no firm plans have been made. On its debut on Aim, shares rose 4.5% to 104.5p per share.