NBA players Tony Parker and Nicolas Batum said on Monday they bought two ski resorts in the southern French Alps, according to a report in Reuters.
The two players, both of whom are French, together with former French female basketball-player Marie-Sophie Obama, bought a 76.9 percent stake in SEVLC, a local company that runs two ski resorts in Villard-de-Lans and Correncon-en-Vercors in the southern French Alps.
“The goal is to spend time here, to spend Christmas holidays here,” Parker said at a press conference in Villard-de-Lans.
“It’s not like there is a ski resort on sale every day,” Parker said. The Reuters report said he declined to disclose the amount of the transaction, which took more than a year to negotiate.
Local authorities told Reuters they expect the fame of the resorts’ new owners to make the place more popular and help bring more tourists.
