Tag: Alua Hotels & Resorts

HI Partners Acquires 3 Hotels in Mallorca & Málaga

26 December 2017 – Ali Market

On 22 December, Spain’s National Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV) reported that the US fund The Blackstone Group International Partners (through Halley Bidco, S.L.U.) had finally made effective the purchase of 100% of HI Partners Holdco Value Added from Banco Sabadell, in an operation worth €630.73M (…).

Hotel Investment Partners (HI Partners) divides its assets between two subsidiaries, HI Partners Holdco Value Added and HI Partners Holdco Gestión Activa. Value Added owns HI’s larger tourist accommodations, located in premium areas and capable of generating significant returns once converted. That division owns 15 tourist accommodation establishments (grouped into 14 complexes), which are integrated into various hotel groups through management and rental contracts, comprising 3,724 rooms in total.

Meanwhile, Gestión Activa (635 units spread over 11 establishments) owns the rest of the group’s assets, most of which are smaller properties, in secondary locations, with the aim of being sold after optimising their management. As at 25 December 2017, HI Partners owned a total portfolio of 4,359 accommodation units (beds) spread over 26 hotels, according to a Census performed by Alimarket Hoteles.

New additions

Blackstone’s aim over the next few years is to position HI Partners in the Spanish hotel sector and to continue adding new assets to its portfolio in order to make it one of the largest owners in the domestic hotel market. In this sense, HI Partners has just announced the purchase of three holiday resorts. Specifically, in the Balearic Islands, it has purchased ‘Calviá Dreams’ (4E-161 beds) and ‘Barracuda’ (3E-264 beds) in Magaluf (Mallorca) and in Torremolinos, it has acquired the Malagan aparthotel ‘Pueblo Camino Real’ (4E-513 beds).

The first two assets currently form part of the Alua Hotels & Resorts portfolio (a chain that is owned in its entirety by Alchemy) (…). In fact, and in its fight to grow its portfolio, Blackstone bid this year to acquire the Alua Hotels’ portfolio; however, the Socimi Hispania (the largest hotel owner in Spain, with 11,047 beds spread over 39 hotels) pipped the US fund at the post by acquiring a batch of 7 hotels linked to Alua for €165 million earlier this month (…).

Original story: Ali Market (by Ricardo Vallano)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Negotiates Purchase of Grupo Alua’s Hotels

18 December 2017 – Expansión

The US investment fund Blackstone wants to strengthen its position in the hotel segment in Spain. After acquiring Sabadell’s hotel portfolio in October for €630 million, Blackstone is now analysing the acquisition of the hotel portfolio owned by Alua Hotels & Resorts to strengthen its presence in the market.

Sources in the sector explain to Expansión that the US fund has been negotiating with the owners of Alua for several months regarding the operation and, although it is not the only player bidding for its portfolio, it is one of the best positioned to close the deal. The portfolio owned by Alua Hotels & Resorts currently includes seven hotels with more than 1,700 rooms located in different parts of the Balearic and Canary Islands.

Specifically, Alua owns four establishments in Palma de Mallorca: the AlauSoul Palma, with 120 rooms; the AluaSoul Mallorca Resort, with 371 rooms; the AluaSoul Alcudia Bay, with 171 rooms; and the AluaSun Torrenova, with 256 rooms.

Management agreement

In addition, it owns the AluaSoul (in Ibiza), with 290 rooms; the Hotel Parque San Antonio (in Tenerife), with 252 rooms; and the Hotel Ambar Beach, (in Fuerteventura) with 244 rooms.

Alua Hotels & Resorts –previously known as Feel Hotels Group– was created in 2015, inspired by the European private equity firm Alchemy Special Opportunities and by Javier Águila, former Director of Orizonia, following the purchase of six hotels, with more than 1,200 rooms, in Mallorca and Ibiza. The portfolio used to be owned by Marina Hotels (…).

Moreover, Alua Hotels & Resorts manages five Intertur Hotels acquired in May 2017 by KKR and Dunas Capital. Those establishments, which comprise 1,120 rooms in Mallorca and Ibiza, were worth just over €120 million.

The agreement reached between KKR, Dunas Capital and Alua Hotels & Resorts considered the repositioning and modernisation of the five establishments and the management of the hotels by Alua following the entry into force of the agreement and their marketing under its brand in 2018.

Alua Hotels & Resorts, which last year recorded turnover of €28 million, has more than 1,200 employees.

Record investment

The tourism boom in Spain, the appetite for real estate and the liquidity in the market are continuing to encourage hotel investment, which may reach €3 billion by the end of the year; that would represent a new record for this segment (…).

Moreover, if these negotiations prove successful, the operation would allow Blackstone to shore up its position in Spain. The US fund has become one of the stars of the real estate sector this year, having closed some of the most high-profile transactions in recent months (…).

Of the (14) hotels that Blackstone purchased from Sabadell, six are located in the Canary Islands (two in Tenerife and four in Gran Canaria) and the rest are located in Cataluña (in Sitges and Roses), the Community of Valencia (in Benidorm and Valencia), Málaga (two) and another two in Mallorca and Madrid (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Funds Snatch Leadership in Hotel Investment from Socimis

2 November 2017

The Spanish sector is experiencing its moment of glory this year. Forecasts indicate that the number of visitors will reach 80 million, a record that will place Spain ahead of France in the rankings. This, added to the positive operational data coming from the hotels, has led investment funds to intensify their commitment to hotel assets, taking the lead from socimis as the principal investors in the sector. Thus, compared to last year, the disbursement of funds to acquire hotel establishments or platforms has grown by 119%, to exceed €1.25 billion at the end of October, compared to 569 million that was transacted throughout 2016.

In the same period, the socimis have decreased their activity by 76%, going from being the leading investor in the area last year, with 26.3% of the total investment amount, to accounting for only 5.26% of the total disbursed by the end of October this year, according to JLL’s data.

The leadership of the socimis in recent years has been buoyed by Hispania’s intense activity, which in just three years has managed to position itself as the principal non-operating owner of hotels in Spain, with 11,296 rooms spread over 39 establishments. The company owned by George Soros has until the end of the year to continue to increase its portfolio, and as explained Javier Arús, the socimi’s director of investments in the hotel segment, it has 200 million euros for new purchases during this period.

However, another socimi, Foncière des Régions, starred in the most significant operation of last year. The French company took over Merlin Properties’ hotel portfolio for 539 million euros, and positioned itself as the primary investor of 2016, snatching at the last moment the title from the platform HI Partners (HIP), which at that time still belonged to Sabadell and had closed operations for a volume of just over 223 million euros. This year, the firm has slowed down a bit and to date has paid out 179 million for new assets.

In 2017, however, the funds have been the undisputed leaders, and Blackstone has managed to position itself first by buying, precisely, HIP for €630 million, attracted by its mainly tourism-based portfolio. With this, the fund retained the necessary structure to manage other hotel assets that it already had in its portfolio, such as those of Banco Popular and future acquisitions that could be made in other countries such as Italy and Portugal.

KKR is another of the funds that have moved into the market by purchasing the Mallorcan chain Intertur Hotels together with Dunas Capital. Its portfolio of five hotels will be managed by Alua Hotels & Resorts, which is backed by another fund, the British Alchemy Special Opportunities. The also British Benson Elliot entered the hotel rankings at the beginning of the year with one of the most sizeable operations of 2017, when it acquired the hotel Silken Diagonal, in Barcelona, for 65 million euros.

On the other hand, the activity of private investors has been growing year after year, with an increase of 78% over the last two years, nearly assuming the dealership position, only losing out to investments funds after Blackstone’s operation.

Original Story: elEconomista.es – Alba Brualla

Translation: Richard Turner

KKR & Dunas Capital Purchase The Intertur Hotel Chain

9 May 2017 – Expansión

For €100 million / The hotel chain owns five hotels in Mallorca and Ibiza, containing 1,119 rooms. The new owners are going to modernise and reposition the assets.

The private equity fund KKR and the asset manager Dunas Capital have reached an agreement to purchase the hotel chain Intertur Hotels, which owns five establishments in Mallorca and Ibiza.

The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed, but sources in the market have indicated that the acquisition was closed for a price of just over €100 million. In addition, the investors plan to modernise and reposition the acquired hotel portfolio, which contains 1,119 rooms.

Freshfields, Deloitte, Bird & Bird and Deerns advised the buyers to the operation, whilst the law firm Buades advised the vendor.

Once the agreement enters into force, Alua Hotels & Resorts will be responsible for managing the hotels, which will be marketed under that brand from 2018 onwards. The Aula hotel group, in which the alternative asset manager Alchemy Partners owns a stake, manages 15 hotel assets and almost 3,200 rooms in the Balearic and Canary Islands.

Specifically, Intertur owns two hotels in Mallorca –Hotel Hawaii Mallorca & Suites and Palmanova Bay, both in Palma Nova–, and three assets in Ibiza –Hotel Hawaii Ibiza (in San Antonio) and apartments and a hotel (in Santa Eulalia)–.

Guillaume Cassou, Head of European Real Estate at KKR, said that this portfolio constitutes a “very solid base” for creating value in a market that is benefitting from a very favourable environment and he underlined the interest expressed by KKR, Dunas Capital and Alua in “undertaking more projects together”.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake