HI Partners Acquires Remaining 50.1% of Hotel Abama in Tenerife

12 March 2018 – Expansión

HI Partners has been making its first acquisitions since being taken over by Blackstone Real Estate. Banco Sabadell’s former hotel holding company has taken ownership of 100% of Hotel Abama Golf & Spa de Tenerife after acquiring the 50.1% share capital that it did not yet control from the Polanco family.

The company led by Alejandro Hernández Puértolas already purchased 49.9% of the luxury Canarian tourist resort from Tropical Hoteles – a subsidiary of the Polanco’s investment group, Timón – a year ago, and has now become its sole owner.

Luxurious five-star resort

Ritz Carlton is going to continue managing the establishment, which has a luxury five-star rating and 461 rooms, of which 148 are villas. Located in the town of Guía de Isora, the resort was designed by Melvin Villarroel. It spans a surface area of 90,000 m2 and has a two-starred Michelin restaurant run by the chef Martín Berasategui.

HI Partners, which Blackstone acquired last year for €630 million, owns 16 hotels comprising 4,684 rooms, which are operated by chains such as Ritz-Carlton, AC by Marriot, Lopesan and Meliá.

Original story: Expansión (by S. Saborit)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Sells Its Hotel Management Company To Blackstone

17 October 2017 – Expansión

Sabadell has sold 100% of the share capital in HI Partners, its hotel management platform, to Halley Holdco, an entity controlled by funds advised by subsidiaries of Blackstone. The transaction price amounted to €630.73 million, according to a statement filed by the bank with the CNMV. Nevertheless, the definitive valuation will be subject to “possible non-material adjustments” and “is conditional upon obtaining the necessary authorisation from the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV)”.

Sabadell will recognise a net gain of €55 million in its results for this year as a consequence of the sale. Moreover, it will improve its maximum quality capital ratio (CET 1 without full implementation of Basel III) by 22 basis points. In June, its capital ratio amounted to 12.67%, in accordance with the calendar for the gradual adaptation of the rule, and to 12.1% assuming the full application of Basel III (fully loaded).

HI Partners is one of the largest managers of hotel assets, including debt, in Spain, with 29 properties in its portfolio and 4,793 rooms in total. Its establishments include the Hotel Ritz-Carlton Abama, in Guía de Isora (Tenerife); the Hotel Abora Catarina, located in Maspalomas (Gran Canaria); and the Hotel ME Sitges Terramar (Sitges), the Hotel Hilton Sa Torre, in Llucmajor (Mallorca); and the Abba Acteon, in Valencia.

Before the summer, Sabadell engaged the investment banks Citi, JP Morgan and Credit Suisse to sound out the market regarding the possible placement on the stock exchange of its hotel management subsidiary.

In addition to Sabadell’s majority stake, HI Partners’ other shareholders include the company’s management team, comprising Alejandro Hernández-Puértolas, Sergio Carrascosa and Santiago Fisas. Its most recent operations involve several agreements with the Canary Islands-based hotel group Lopesan, from which it purchased the hotels ‘Ifa Dunamar’, ‘Ifa Continental’ and ‘Ifa Beach’.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Considers Listing HI Partners As A Socimi

29 May 2017 – Eje Prime

A new IPO may be on the horizon for the real estate arm of one of the large Spanish banks. Banco Sabadell is analysing the option of debuting its subsidiary HI Partners, through which it owns a portfolio of 31 hotels across Spain, on the stock market as a Socimi.

According to Expansión, the bank has engaged the investment banks Citi, JP Morgan and Credit Suisse to study the feasibility of the placement, whose final green light will depend on the entity’s President, Josep Oliu. The eventual debut on the stock market could take place after the summer.

Led by Alejandro Hernández-Puértolas and chaired by Enric Rovira, HI Partners was founded in 2015 by Sabadell to enable the Catalan entity to concentrate the ownership of the real estate assets linked to the tourist sector that it obtained as a result of foreclosures, into a single company. Through two companies, HI Partners Value Added and HI Partners Gestión Activa, the firm now owns 31 hotels with more than 3,500 rooms, which are managed by various hotel operators.

The group’s assets include establishments in Tenerife (the Hotel Jardín Tropical), Marbella (Incosol), Sitges (Terramar), Valencia (Acteon), Málaga (an establishment run by the hotel chain Silken) and Mallorca (the Hilton Sa Torre). In addition, HI Partners manages €800 million of the bank’s hotel debt.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake