Tag: asset-light

2 September 2019

The major hospitality groups Barceló, Meliá and NH are taking advantage of the fervour in the Spanish real estate market to sell off some of their real estate holdings to interested funds and socimis. Many of the firms are implementing an asset rotation policy, shedding capital-intensive investments and looking to switch to a policy of hotel management and leasing.

To this end, Meliá, Barceló and NH have sold hotels worth approximately 500 million euros over the last two years as a wave of new investors, many socimis, have entered the market. Meliá began its asset-light policy a decade ago, and it is looking to increase the percentage of its EBITDA from its current 32% to 50% by 2024. In 2019, it accounted for just 2%.

Barceló is following the same sort of strategy, selling a hotel in Marbella to Hispania for €19 million. In 2017, Barceló sold 24% of its hotel sector Socimi Bay for €172 million, holding into long-term leases on the hotels.

NH, now part of the Thai group Minor, sold the NH Collection Barbizon Palace in Amsterdam to the German asset manager Deka for €156 million earlier this year, while also maintaining a 20-year lease on the property. NH has assets valued at €2.1 billion, including 350 hotels, with 54,000 rooms. Of those, NH only owns 76. The rest are leased or managed by the hospitality group.

Original Story: Expansión – Rebeca Arroyo

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner