7 May 2019 – Eje Prime
The company Byblos Costa del Sol, in which Ayco holds a 90% stake, has sold the Hotel Byblos Andaluz complex, located in the municipal district of Mijas (Málaga) to an unknown buyer for an undisclosed sum.
The complex includes the hotel building itself, plus a spa and a building housing sports facilities.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake
12 February 2018 – Idealista
Real estate investment companies are continuing to star in real estate operations in Spain. On this occasion, the protagonist has been one of the latest companies to have debuted on the stock market: Elaia Investment Spain.
That vehicle, controlled by the Ruggieri family, one of the most wealthy in France, started trading its shares in October with a market value of €120 million. It specialises in assets linked to tourism and holds residential buildings, tourist apartments and hotels in its portfolio.
And it is in that sector that the Socimi plans to continue investing. On 7 February, it reached an agreement with BBVA to purchase the entity’s former employee residence in the town of Alfaz del Pi, in the province of Alicante.
The operation has been signed for €8.7 million and allows the Socimi to add more assets to its portfolio. The property has 140 rooms and spans a constructed surface area of more than 12,000 m2, located on a plot measuring 30,000 m2.
In this way, the complex has a large garden area, swimming pool, solarium, parking, tennis and frontón court, as well as a Social Club measuring almost 350 m2. With these facilities and its good location already in the bag (the residence is located just 200 metres away from the Playa del Albir, one of the most touristy municipalities in the Costa Blanca), the aim of the Socimi is to convert the property into a hotel complex.
According to confirmation provided by the French-controlled company to the Alternative Investment Market (MAB), the Socimi is in the process of marketing the property for its lease and the refurbishment work is in the process of being prepared.
According to explanations given by Manuel Climent, Director of transactions at JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group, who has acted as the advisor to the selling bank, “this operation confirms the interest from international investors in Spain and more specifically in holiday destinations. In 2017, more than 62% of the total transacted volume in holiday locations involved operations whose buyers were international. We expect this trend to continue during 2018, taking into account the strong operating results in the market and the growth forecasts”.
Original story: Idealista
Translation: Carmel Drake
31 July 2017 – Idealista
Hispania is pushing ahead with its strategic plan and, to this end, has completed the purchase of two plots of land on which it will build 2 luxury resorts. The plots of land acquired by the Socimi for €13 million are located in the Canary Islands, specifically, in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
In addition to hotel resorts, the objective of the investment vehicle, in which the magnate George Soros holds a stake, is to incorporate retail, leisure and sports facilities into the complexes. The project looks set to involve a total investment of around €50 million in the case of Lanzarote alone.
Hispania already owns the Occidental Playa and Barceló Lanzarote hotels, and based on the plans that it has in mind, the five-star complex would contain more than 1,000 rooms, which would make it the largest establishment in Hispania’s portfolio. In Fuerteventura, the Socimi also owns several properties, including two hotels that it purchased in the summer of 2015 for just over €100 million.
Over the last week, Hispania has been in the news for several reasons. Firstly, it is negotiating the sale of 24 office buildings for around €500 million; the insurer Swiss Life is the final candidate in that process.
In addition, the Socimi saw the stock market debut of the investment vehicle that it shares with Grupo Barceló (known as Bay Hotels & Leisure), which started trading on 20 July with a market value of almost €500 million.
Original story: Idealista
Translation: Carmel Drake
29 May 2017 – Expansión
The German Group 12.18. Investment Management, which specialises in hotel and vacation investments, has arrived in Spain with its first luxury resort, in Ibiza, where it has invested €74 million. The complex, which will operate under the Seven Pines brand, will open its doors in October and will be operational for twelve months of the year.
The resort has 418 beds distributed across two villas and 195 suites, with prices ranging from €230 to €3,000, depending on the season and the occupancy rate. The group estimates that it will generate turnover of €15 million from the complex during its first year of operation and will achieve annual growth of 5% thereafter.
The company, which has an investment portfolio worth €250 million, made its first incursion into Spain at the beginning of 2014, with the purchase of a 3-star vacation complex in Ibiza, constructed in 1970, which it has completely renovated. In addition, 12.18. owns a plot of land measuring 18,000 m2 in the north of Tenerife, which it plans to develop next year.
The German firm has highlighted its interest in strengthening its position in Spain and to that end, it is currently looking for opportunities in Barcelona, Mallorca and Marbella.
Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)
Translation: Carmel Drake
27 March 2017 – El Economista
The investor group Platinum Estates, owned by the magnate Harry Mohinani, and the Marriott International group, have signed an agreement to launch the Hotel W Marbella Resort, which will be constructed in the Malagan town of the same name and which will cost around €300 million.
The agreement first started to take shape in September 2015, when the group owned by Mohinani expressed its interest in investing in the town to make one of Marbella’s dreams a reality: to be born again as a luxury destination. In this sense, the mayor José Bernal said that the future complex represents the “resurgence” of luxury international hotel brands in Marbella, after more than 50 years. “It improves the quality of supply in the town”, he added.
Specifically, the W chain has just one establishment in Spain. The W Barcelona (pictured above), also known as the sail hotel, is a 99 m building that was designed by the Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill.
The hotel in Marbella will have 600 beds, will create around 1,000 direct jobs and will target customers with significant spending power. The ground floor, which will be four storeys high, will occupy a surface area of 50,000 m2, and will extend for 60 m along the coast. There will also be 54,000 m2 of green space, 27,000 m2 assigned to services and access roads and 19,000 m2 for facilities. One of the venue’s attractions will be a sand dune, which will be integrated into the hotel complex.
In total, the plot of land on which the property will be built will have a surface area of 160,000 m2, located in a really beautiful area.
Original story: El Economista
Translation: Carmel Drake
22 August 2016 – Expansión
Meliá and Compañía de las Islas Occidentales (CIO) – the Canary Island-based family group that brings together tourism, industrial and service sector companies – have put an end to the legal battle that has been raging between them since 2008.
The hotel chain owned by the Escarrer family has reported in a statement that CIO has acquired all of the shares that Meliá still owned in that group’s companies. Specifically, the company chaired by Francisco Javier Zamorano has acquired 5.03% of Inversiones Hoteleras Playa del Duque from Melía, along with the 8.42% stake that the hotel chain owned in Inversiones Turísticas Casas Bellas.
Inversiones Hoteleras Playa del Duque is the owner of the Gran Hotel Bahía del Duque (pictured above). Meanwhile, Inversiones Turísticas Casas Bellas owns and manages 40 five-star luxury villas at a complex that also houses a spa, mini-golf course and other facilities in the Playa del Duque urbanisation, in the town of Adeje (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), according to recent information filed with the Commercial Registry.
The business relationship between the two groups began in 1993, when Melía was chosen to operate Gran Hotel Bahía del Duque. The problems first arose in 2008, when CIO pushed Meliá aside from the management of the property. CIO defended its decision on the basis that Melía had opened a hotel complex in the same tourist area, which competed directly with Gran Hotel Bahía del Duque, given that, in its opinion, that represented a “clear conflict of interests”.
Meanwhile, Meliá initiated arbitration proceedings, which concluded that the Mallorcan chain had not breached any exclusivity agreement and that, therefore, the decision (to remove Meliá as the hotel manager) was improper and Meliá should receive €1.29 million by way of compensation.
Following that ruling, the company chaired by Zamorano understood that CIO would be automatically entitled to repurchase the shares that Meliá still owned in its companies, and that the dividends received for those shares would be returned, and so, it decided to appeal to the courts. Now, eight years later, and following Meliá’s exit from the CIO companies, the groups have definitively buried the hatchet.
Original story: Expansión (by R.Arroyo)
Translation: Carmel Drake
2 August 2016 – Expansión
The hotel chain earned €45 million during the six months to June and reduced its net debt by €213 million.
The hotel chain Meliá, which will join the Ibex next week, replacing FCC, doubled its profits during the first half of the year, to €45 million. The company has highlighted that the 123% improvement in net profit has been generated even without the sale of any assets.
The company owned by the Escarrer family increased its average revenue per room (RevPAR) by 9.4% – or by 14.2% if we include the assets under management in its portfolio – and whereby recorded six years of consecutive quarterly increases.
The company closed the first half of the year with operating income of €856 million, 0.4% lower than in the same period in 2015. If we strip out the effect of gains from the sale of assets last year, operating income increased by 5.7%.
By geographic region, RevPAR in America was lower in H1 2016 than in H1 2015, which the company explains was due to the impact of the depreciation in the Canadian dollar, the economic deceleration in Brazil and Argentina, changes in reservations due to the Zika virus and the good temperature in the USA and Canada, the main issuing markets. By contrast, the company highlighted the strong performance of hotels in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, with a RevPAR increae of 30.9%.
In terms of the financial situation, Meliá decreased its net debt by €213 million during the first six months of the year, bringing it down to €556 million at the end of June, thanks primarily to the early conversion of a convertible bond issued in 2013.
The Vice-President and CEO of Meliá, Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, stated that the repositioning of its hotels, investment in assets and strategic markets, as well as financial strengthening have allowed the group to return to the Ibex thirteen years later.
The company is “optimistic” about the performance of its hotel complexes during the third quarter and its urban hotels during the second half of the year. In the same way, it forecasts a favourable “albeit unequal” performance across its “European hotels”, influenced by the world environment, especially France, in the face of the heightened terrorist threat. In terms of America, the firm expects a boost with the opening of several new hotels: Innside New York Nomad, ME Miami and Meliá Braco Village (Jamaica).
At a conference with analysts, the company made reference to Brexit explaining that it does not expect any impact in the short term, given that Britons have already booked their holidays for 2016, and some have even booked for next year.
Original story: Expansión
Translation: Carmel Drake
Portugal 
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