The municipalities of Flims, Laax and Falera are to protect the tourist infrastructure on the Weißen Arena Bergbahnen AG mountain from a potential sale and to take over it with a joint company. The mountain railways and lifts, mountain restaurants, commercial buildings and avalanche protection facilities will then be leased back and continued to operate by Weisse Arena Bergbahnen AG. Together, the municipalities should raise 50 million francs for this. The referendums on the project will take place at the end of October.
Joint media release for the municipalities of Flims, Laax, Falera and the Weisse Arena Group dated September 24, 2025
In order to protect the facilities on the mountain of Weißen Arena Bergbahnen AG, a subsidiary of the Weisse Arena Group in Laax, from a possible sale to foreign investors, they are to be sold to the local Finanz Infra AG. It has owned snow-making facilities since 2005. It will now also take over the rest of the tourist infrastructure on the mountain and lease it to the White Arena.
Weisse Arena Bergbahnen AG will continue to operate the facilities in the future and pay for all costs. As tenant, she will bear all financial infrastructure expenses and finance the depreciation required to maintain and replace investments. The lease agreement also regulates a minimum operating period of 300 days per year and the continued existence of benefits for locals.
The investments are to be taken over at a residual book value of 94.5 million francs. The municipalities of Flims, Laax and Falera are to co-finance the takeover with a total of 50 million: Laax with 20 million, Falera with 10 million and Flims with 2 million plus 18 million, which they had already made earlier to build the FLEMX railway.
Weisse Arena Bergbahnen AG is granting Finanz Infra a loan of 20 million and 42.5 million are to be financed with outside capital. As part of the proposal, Finanz Infra AG is to be fully adopted by the three municipalities. Flims, Laax and Falera will vote on their respective contributions at the end of October.
“The business model is called “sell and lease back,” project manager Adrian Wolf told the media on Wednesday. “The municipalities and the Weisse Arena Group have been operating it for 20 years with snow-making systems. Now we want to consistently apply the model and extend it to the entire infrastructure on the mountain.”
Fair, balanced and reasonable
Franz Gschwend, Mayor of Laax and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Finanz Infra AG, told the media on Wednesday that the initiative to secure the infrastructure came from the three municipalities. The tourist infrastructure on the mountain is systemically important; the region and its tourism depend on it not falling into the hands of foreign investors.
Norbert Good, Mayor of Falera, believes that the valuation of investments at the residual book value is fair. The takeover project was big for the municipalities, but it was balanced and reasonable.
The mayor of Flims, Christoph Schmidt, emphasized that the municipalities have been working very well with the Weisse Arena Group for decades and that the FinanzInfra model has also worked flawlessly for 20 years.
Reto Gurtner confirmed that various financial and tourism investors would probably be interested in participating or taking over the Weisse Arena Group. However, the President and delegate of the White Arena Group believes it is right that such an important infrastructure should be operated in the overall interest of the region in the long term.
He therefore prefers a solution with the municipalities, even though there might have been higher offers in the short term. Weisse Arena Bergbahnen AG will pay enough rent interest so that the municipalities would not have to provide additional financial aid even with larger investments. This has been working this way for a long time with snow-making systems.
The referendums in the three municipalities
- Falera Municipal Assembly: October 23, 2025
- Laax Municipal Assembly: Friday, October 24, 2025
- Flims ballot: Sunday, October 26, 2025