Tag: Enrique Sarasola

Be Mate Teams Up With Fund Q Capital to Grow its Tourist Home Business

23 March 2017 – Expansión

The businessman Enrique Sarasola has found a new formula for accelerating the growth of Be Mate, the rental platform for tourist apartments, through which he is complementing his Room Mate hotel offering. The plan is to team up with the investment fund Q Capital, which will contribute €100 million of funding so that Be Mate can search for, adapt and manage between eight and ten apartment buildings in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and Sevilla.

“The project reinforces the idea that you can’t block progress”, explains Sarasola to Expansión, who also highlighted the importance of the fact that a “team as strong” as the one at Q Capital has decided to back the management of entire apartment buildings. The faces behind that firm include Íñigo Olaguíbel, Borja Oyarzábal and Borja Pérez.

Q Capital, founded in 2016, channels direct investments in Spain from Qualitas Equity Partners. Its objective is to find returns in segments such as SMEs and other niche areas not served by traditional financial operators.

Medium and long stay apartments

This alliance is going to give a boost to the concept already tested by Be Mate in the Plaza de España Skyline building: the management of entire buildings of tourist apartments. This business, inaugurated last year, is proving “a success”, explains Sarasola.

The novelty is not only in the financing, which is going to be provided by Q Capital, but also in the fact that Be Mate is going to go beyond the tourist home service to offer “apartments for medium and long stays, and for corporate use”. According to Sarasola, “it is another change that adapts to our times. We are pioneers in this field, but it is because we listen to our clients and we have identified that the need exists”.

Of the ten or so buildings planned, Be Mate has already identified five. The acquisitions will be undertaken over the next three years, initially in Spain, which is the “priority” market, but not at any price. “We will invest here for as long as the regulations are not prohibitive. If that changes, we will go overseas”, he warns.

Be Mate broke its own revenue record last year, by generating sales of €6 million, 10 times more than during the previous year. It sold 80,000 overnight stays for 30,000 clients, 40% of whom came from international markets. The company offers 10,000 apartments, 600 of which it manages exclusively.

Original story: Expansión (by I. de las Heras)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Room Mate Will Operate Hotel Rex In Madrid

6 February 2017 – Expansión

Room Mate, the hotel chain owned by Enrique Sarasola, has been chosen to manage the iconic Hotel Rex, located on Gran Vía in Madrid.

The hotel, which will have 130 rooms and which will be operated by Room Mate on a lease basis, will open its doors in 2018 or 2019 and will create 45 new jobs.

The building was acquired by Axa Real Estate in 2015. The owner now wants to undertake a comprehensive renovation of the property. To this end, the architect Tomas Alía, who has already worked for the hotel chain on other projects, such as Room Mate Oscar in Madrid and Room Mate Aitana in The Netherlands, will be the designer on this project.

In addition to Hotel Rex, Room Mate has five other hotels in Madrid.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Room Mate Prepares To Enter Holiday Hotel Segment

18 October 2016 – Expansión

Room Mate Hotels, the hotel chain chaired by Enrique Sarasola (pictured above), is preparing to enter the vacation hotel segment and has set itself the goal of having 2,000 rooms in a number of hotels along the coast by 2020.

Specifically, the group founded in 2005, which already has a presence in twelve cities and six countries, plans to inaugurate this new line of business next summer. To that end, the chain is currently analysing different projects and studying operations in the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Cataluña, Costa del Sol and Riviera Maya (México).

“We have taken this decision after listening to requests from our customers, who have been asking us for a long time now to take our philosophy and creativity to beach destinations”, explained Sarasola.

The Director said that the group currently has around fifteen projects on the table at various phases of analysis to determine whether they fit with its standards. “The company is being refinanced. This step forms part of our strategy to grow through turnkey projects”, he added.

The chain signed a €54 million refinancing agreement with Citigroup at the end of last year. Half of that figure will be used to pay off debt and the remainder will be used to finance growth.

The Chairman of Room Mate considers that this move is an important step in the company’s plans: “We want to take the essence of Room Mate to exclusive vacation destinations, specifically: excellent locations, superb design…and innovative concepts”.

In this way, the group’s new beach front destinations will include a wide range of leisure facilities, bars, restaurants, beach clubs and terraces, said Sarasola. “In some locations, we will opt for all inclusive formats, in others we will place the emphasis on the music or on the leisure facilities”, he said.

According to the company’s forecasts, Room Mate will close 2016 will operating revenues of €72 million, which represents an increase of 36% with respect to 2015 (€52.9 million). In the first eight months of this year alone, the hotel chain recorded revenues of €44 million.

Room Mate’s properties will close the year with an occupancy rate of more than 87%, whislt the RevPar (revenues per available room) will amount to €133.42, up by 14% compared to last year.

Room Mate Hotels has more than 1,500 rooms in 23 hotels and plans to open another eight establishments over the next few months.

Sarasola said that the chain has achieved record results in all of its destinations this summer, with the exception of Istanbul, which has suffered as a result of the terrorist attacks. “We are not planning to abandon the destination. We are not going to allow terrorism to change our plans”, he said.

Renovation

In Spain, the Director encourages the Public Administrations to help the sector to renovate the hotel stock…to position Spain as the “Florida of Europe”. He also acknowledged that the lack of Government “is not good for the industry”.

The Executive recently strengthened his commitment to Room Mate by buying an additional 20% stake in the hotel chain that he founded more than ten years ago; he now controls 70% of the share capital. The remaining 30% is held by Sandra Ortega Mera, through the company Rosp Corunna.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sarasola Increases Stake In Room Mate To 70%

7 July 2016 – Expansión

The President of Room Mate, Enrique Sarasola, has purchased an additional 20% stake in the hotel chain that he founded in 2003, allowing him to take control of 70% of the share capital. The remaining 30% is held by Sandra Ortega, through the company Rosp Corunna.

Specifically, Sarasola has signed a contract, through his company Tafay 2000, to acquire the 14% stake controlled by Basphon Investment and the 6% stake held by Berbaz Familiar. Basphon Investment, a company owned by Pedro Agustín del Castillo, President of Binter Canarias, acquired its stake in Room Mate in 2009; meanwhile Berbaz Familiar, an investment vehicle owned by the Sanzol family, has been a shareholder since 2004.

This change allows the company to address its business plan for 2015-2019 with a more stable shareholder base, who are more focused on the “day to day” running of the company, explains Sarasola. The President of Room Mate and Bemate.com says that Basphon and Berbaz were “more financial” investors, who have identified an opportunity to exit the company and achieve a good return.

Forecasts

The Director considers that this movement is yet another example of his confidence in the company and he highlights the results achieved in recent years. Based on the company’s forecasts, Room Mate will close 2016 with a turnover of €68.3 million, which represents an increase of 22% with respect to 2015. The hotel chain generated revenues of €25.7 million during the first five months of the year, 48% more than in 2015.

Room Mate’s hotels recorded an average occupancy rate of 85.8% during the five months to May 2016, whilst its RevPar (revenues per available room) amounted to €127.30, 13.3% higher than during the same period last year.

Room Mate Hotels owns more than 1,500 rooms, has a presence in six countries and twelve cities and will open eight new hotels over the next ten months. In 2016, 65% of Room Mate’s revenues will be generated overseas.

Sarasola predicts that this summer will “break all records” and he highlights the strong performance of domestic tourism. In any case, the Director emphasises the need (for Spain) to form a new Government and he expressed his “concern regarding the Ministry of Tourism because since the Minister left, it has not been operating with the necessary degree of transparency”.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Be Mate Buys Alterkeys To Take On More Than 100,000 Apartments

22 January 2015 – Expansión

Growth / The online platform, launched in September, lists 111,000 homes across Europe.

Be Mate, the online platform for tourist accommodation, launched by Enrique Sarasola, the Chairman of the hotel chain Room Mate, has strengthened its business through its first acquisition. The target, Alterkeys, a start-up created in the UK, but based in Spain, has a portfolio of 102,000 apartments located across 42 countries.

The transaction has been completed through a cash payment and a package of Be Mate stock options, linked to the business’s fulfilment of a series of milestones over the short and medium term. Be Mate has financed the monetary contribution, which represents 70% of the total consideration, from its own funds.

Following the acquisition, the management team of Alterkeys, led by its founder José María González, will be integrated into Be Mate, which has hired Jorge Gómez Sancha as CEO. Mr Gómez Sancha founded De Banjo, a company specialising in video on demand, which was subsequently sold to TDF Media Services.

Over the next six months, Be Mate’s team will study the portfolio of apartments listed on Alterkeys to determine how many fit with its business. Sarasola, who together with other partners is the primary individual shareholder of the platform, with a 44.28% stake, calculates that “around two thirds of the properties will be incorporated into Be Mate’s platform”. In the businessman’s own words “this acquisition allows Be Mate to grow very quickly and have a presence in every European capital”. The main markets serviced by Alterkeys are the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Scandinavia and Spain, where it lists 10,900 apartments.

Hotel partnerships

Sarasola admits that they have not yet decided how the Alterkeys brand will be used. The question will be resolved over the next few months, once Be Mate, which itself lists 9,000 tourist homes, has had the opportunity to segment the new supply. During the second half of the year, Be Mate will develop partnerships with independent hotels in those cities in which Room Mate does not have a presence, since Be Mate seeks to differentiate itself from other companies, such as AirBnB, by offering certain hotel-style services to its clients during their stay. Be Mate has received more than 1.5 million visits since September and has more than 7,000 registered users.

Original story: Expansión (by Yolanda Blanco)

Translation: Carmel Drake