Tag: HUSA

Eurostars Purchases Hotel Abba Centrum Alicante

5 December 2018 – Real Estate Press

The Eurostars hotel chain is growing in Alicante. Hotusa, one of the firms belonging to the group, has completed the purchase of the Hotel ABBA Centrum, which it has been negotiating since September.

The amount of the operation has not been revealed, although market sources calculate that it could fall in the range of €12 million to €15 million.

The intention of the chain is to reopen the hotel in January as the Eurostars Centrum, and so the work that it is going to carry out in the building is minimal. In fact, the hotel chain’s website is already accepting reservations for the new hotel in the centre of Alicante from next month. According to sources familiar with the operation, the Hotusa group brand will subject the property to a detailed review to get it ready and will continue to operate it without carrying out any renovation work, at least for the time being.

With this acquisition, Eurostars is growing in Alicante and is whereby adding its third 4-star establishment to its portfolio in the Alicante capital. To date, the chain operates the Eurostars Lucentum, in the former headquarters of the now defunct Banco de Alicante on Avenida de Alfonso X el Sabio, opposite the Central Market, and the Eurostars Mediterranea Plaza, in the same square as the Town Hall. In all cases, the Eurostars hotels are 4-star establishments and offer mid-range prices, in modern buildings and in iconic urban locations.

The chain has more than 100 hotels across fifty destinations, all of which are medium-high end and, in general, housed in unique buildings. The hotel arm of the group is completed with Exe Hotels (60 establishments in Europe and Latin America) and Ikonik Hotels. In addition to its own establishments, the group has around 300 establishments associated with its hotel representation division throughout the world.

In the case of Alicante capital, and in parallel to the negotiation with ABBA Centrum, the chain has also been sounding out the market in the San Juan beach area of Alicante capital, although in that case, the operation has not come to fruition. In that area, the hotel that would be best suited to Hotusa’s plans is Alicante Golf, which is currently managed by the Husa chain, but there has not been any progress on that front for the time being.

Original story: Real Estate Press

Translation: Carmel Drake

Colony Capital Puts Meliá Valencia Hotel Up for Sale

10 August 2018

The hotel investment market is still at a fever pitch, driven by healthy tourism receipts in Spain. Taking advantage of the moment and the current lack of supply, the Colony Capital fund has decided to sell one of the largest hotels in Valencia, elEconomista confirmed with several sources in the sector.

The Meliá Palacio de Congresos Hotel, formerly managed by Hilton, is on the market for approximately 50 million euros, in an operation that is being advised by Savills Aguirre Newman.

The property, located at 52 Avenida Cortes Valencianas, has more than 300 rooms, a gym, restaurants and parking. Also, the four-star hotel has 24,000 square meters in area, consisting of two buildings with a 29-floor tower, a 21-room Convention Centre and can accommodate up to 875 people. The sale has aroused the interest of many investors, including family offices, socimis and institutional investors, including Axa Real Estate.

According to the same sources, the hotel’s management will remain with Meliá, which has been operating the asset since 2010 through a ten-year, renewable contract.

Growth in Spain

Colony took the asset over earlier this year as part of a much larger operation in which it took control of asset manager Continental Property Investments (CPI), previously owned by the Lebanese investor Boutros El-Khouri.

CPI, which owns properties in the United Kingdom and France, landed in Spain at the height of the crisis, taking advantage of the opportunity to acquire several hotels. The company invested a total of around 250 million euros in two years. In addition to the Meliá Valencia, it also acquired the Husa Princesa and Husa Moncloa, in Madrid, and Florida and Miramar, in Barcelona. These last two were acquired in a partnership with Joan Gaspart, the owner of Husa.

Original Story: eleconomista.es – Alba Brualla

Translation: Richard Turner

Quonia Buys Hotel Internacional In Barcelona For €11.25M

19 July 2016 – La Vanguardia

(…). The Catalan Socimi Quonia, which debuted on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) on Monday, has acquired Hotel Internacional, located on Las Ramblas, 78-80, in Barcelona, for €11.25 million from the hotel group Husa, owned by the businessman Joan Gaspart.

In a statement, Quonia reported that the price includes the purchase of the property and its operating licence, and that the transaction has been advised by the firm Laborde Marcet. This hotel has a leasable surface area of 1,915 sqm; its upper floors are leased for hotel use, whilst its ground floor houses retail premises. The property was one of Husa’s last real estate assets in Barcelona, which is undergoing a major restructuring after emerging from complex bankruptcy proceedings.

Quonia debuted on the MAB on Monday at a price of €1.65 per share, which represents a market capitalisation for the company of €41.97 million. The Socimi holds a portfolio comprising properties leased for residential and commercial use located in Barcelona, Sevilla and Langreo (Asturias), with a total approximate gross leasable area (GLA) of 12,197 sqm, excluding one ground-level car park with 50 spaces and another underground car park with 93 spaces. (…).

Original story: La Vanguardia

Translation: Carmel Drake

Catalan Socimi Quonia: CNMV Authorises Market Debut

28 June 2016 – Valencia Plaza

The Catalan Socimi Quonia now has an ISIN code, required to list on any organised market, such as the stock exchange, according to sources. Specifically, it was issued the passport by the National Agency for Securities Codification (ANCV), which forms part of Spain’s National Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV) on 7 June.

This code is essential for listing and it represents an international reference number that may be used on capital markets around the world. In the case of Quonia, the plan is for it to list on Spain’s Alternative Investment Market (the MAB), where a sizeable number of Socimis are already listed.

And others, such as GMP, the powerful Madrilenian Socimi, which sold the Mercado de Campanar in Valencia just four months ago, will not take long to join it, as its also now has the “permit” required to list on the stock market.

Purchase of Hotel Internacional

In theory, the debut of that group (GMP), founded by the Montoro family – in which the sovereign fund Singapur GIC owns a 30% stake – was scheduled for the summer, according to sources consulted by Valencia Plaza. However, in light of the current instability following the triumph of Brexit, we will have to wait and see what the heads of GMP, the owners of Madrid’s iconic BBVA Tower, end up deciding.

Quonia must be thinking the same. The company specialises in the rental of real estate asset and was founded in Barcelona at the end of July 2010. It is led by Divo Milan Haddad, a businessman whose investments are focused on the real estate sector, both in Europe and Latin America, primarily in Mexico.

Quonia acquired Hotel Internacional de la Rambla from Husa last April, after the vendor filed for bankruptcy last autumn, after receiving authorisation from the Catalan court for just over €11 million.

Original story: Valencia Plaza (by Luis A. Torralba)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Park Street Advisors Pulls Out Of Husa Rescue Plan

9 May 2016 – Expansión

Park Street Advisors, the London fund specialising in distressed assets, which was going to come to Husa’s rescue, has got cold feet. The group has ruled out the possibility of developing the agreement that it had reached with the Gaspart family to create a joint venture to take control of the parent company, Chain, and inject €1.5 million to ensure its continuity.

Sources close to the company owned by the Gaspart family have confirmed that “this operation will not go ahead”, although “they do not rule out possible future collaborations”.

The agreement with Park Street was announced in January last year, when Husa tried to convince its creditors to approve an agreement that proposed a discount of 95% on its €221 million debt. In exchange, the company committed to return €5 million over the next five years, thanks to the agreement with Park Street, and whereby ensure the continuity of the business that has maintained the group.

Joan Gaspart (pictured above) managed to obtain approval for the agreement from the group’s four main companies last summer; the others filed for liquidation. Over the last few months, they have been filing for bankruptcy, with a view to liquidating some of the other small companies, such as Husa Service Hostelería, which recently suspended its payments in Commercial Court number 3 in Barcelona.

Last summer, the agreement with the Treasury and Social Security, to whom Husa still owes €20 million, remained pending.

Although that matter has still not be resolved, the official of Commercial Court number 3 in Barcelona raised preliminary protective measures under which all of Husa’s companies would remain active.

In its heyday in 2007, the chain owned by the former President of FC Barcelona and the President of Tourism in Barcelona, managed around 200 assets, of which around 140 were hotels and the rest were restaurants. The chain currently operates twelve hotels in Spain and Belgium.

But not all of the business was lost. In recent years, prior to the creditors’ bankruptcy, the Gaspart family transferred some of the hotels that it operated, mainly those that worked the best, to another family company called Atiram, which is run by Joan Gaspart’s daughter, María Gaspart Bueno, as the sole director.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Awarded Hotel Barceló Cervantes In Oviedo

26 October 2015 – Expansión

Banco Sabadell has just been awarded the Hotel Barceló Cervantes, in Oviedo (Asturias) in exchange for debt it was owed. The hotel used to belong to an individual and has now been transferred to HI Partners, which is continuing to rapidly grow its portfolio of hotel assets.

The hotel in the Asturian capital has 72 rooms and a 5-star rating, and will continue to be managed by Barceló. It is located in the city centre, in a building that was used as a large luxury home at the beginning of the twentieth century; two glass-fronted wings were subsequently added to the property (see picture above). It has a restaurant, bar and 12 meeting rooms with capacity for more than 300 people.

HI Partners’ hotel portfolio includes another hotel managed by Barceló, namely the Barceló Estepona Thalasso, a 4-star establishment located on the coast of Malaga.

One of the other key assets owned by Banco Sabadell’s manager is Hotel Prestige Coral Playa, located in Roses (Girona) with 167 rooms. HI Partners also owns hotels in Huesca, Tarragona, Navarra, Tenerife, Cádiz, Almería, Valencia and Barcelona, where it was recently awarded one of Husa’s properties.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Husa Emerges From Bankruptcy After €130M Reprieve

28 July 2015 – Expansión

Yesterday, Husa managed to secure the support of its two main creditors, Deutsche Bank and Banco Sabadell, for its proposed agreement to exit from the bankruptcy proceedings that it has been immersed in for the last year and a half.

The hotel chain owned by the former President of FC Barcelona, Joan Gaspart (pictured above), will surrender assets worth €80 million to the banks and others worth a further €25 million to the public administrations. A discount of more than 95% will be applied to its ordinary loans, which amount to more than €90 million.

Twelve companies filed for creditors bankruptcy in total, of which eight will go into liquidation, leaving an unpaid balance of €40 million, therefore, in total, the company will benefit from a “reprieve” of around €130 million.

Yesterday, at the creditors’ meeting for four of the group’s companies, Husa secured sufficient support for two of them: Hostelería Unida 2 and Jardines de Albia. Hostelería Unida is expected to also secure sufficient support (based on the agreements made yesterday and the support it expects to receive by post from the overseas financial institutions). A fourth company, Solsibu, is still waiting to secure sufficient support.

Creditors

Husa won the support of its two large creditors only: Deutsche Bank and Sabadell. The other creditors that participated in the meeting yesterday, such as the Social Security, the Tax Authorities and other suppliers of the group, all voted against the proposed agreement.

One of them, the company Denbolan, which operates in the temporary work sector, spoke at the meeting, stating that it would appeal against the proposed agreement. “It is regrettable that the law is designed in such a way so as to inflict the most harm on small creditors”, said its legal representative.

After the meeting, the President of the Husa Group, Joan Gaspart, said that he was “saddened by the gravity of the situation”, but also “grateful and hopeful about the future”.

The former President of Barça is hopeful that the support received yesterday will represent “a second chance” for Husa, which will work in collaboration with its new partner, Park Street. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake

AC Hotels & Sanahuja Family To Re-Open Hotel Illa In August

19 June 2015 – El Economista

The formar Hotel Husa Illa in Barcelona will open its doors again on 1 August, but it will do so under the AC Hotels brand, owned by Marriott. The company, led by Antonio Catalan, has signed a rental agreement with the Sanahuja family, which owns the property (closed since March).

With this opening, AC Hotels takes its total number of hotels in Barcelona to seven, and it expects to continue to grow there in the short term. “Barcelona represents a clear target for the group. We are currently analysing several transactions in the city, but the truth is that it is difficult to find what we are looking for”, explains Catalan.

The new hotel, located in the L’Illa Diagonal shopping centre, will be “the chain’s best hotel in Barcelona”; €5.5 million has been invested on a comprehensive reform of the building.

Following this facelift, the hotel will have 108 rooms (all measuring at least 45 m2), several suites, a gym and three meeting rooms, amongst other facilities.

Crisis at Husa

Before closing its doors, the property was managed by the hotel chain Husa, which is currently facing financial difficulties, since several of its companies have filed for bankruptcy. In fact, at the beginning of this month, the company chaired by Joan Gaspart, presented a proposed agreement, which raised the possibility of repaying its debts through the transfer of some of the assets it still manages.

This crisis was reflected at L’Illa, where the chain accumulated unpaid rent and the hotel was returned to its owners, after an eviction demand was filed. Its closure resulted in the dismissal of 26 employees, who all received severance pay. Nevertheless, Antonio Catalán says that AC Hotels has hired at least ten of the former employees to work at the new hotel, under the terms of the agreement made at the time.

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Husa Proposes Discount Of More Than 70% To Its Creditors

3 June 2015 – Expansión

The hotel chain Husa, chaired by Joan Gaspart, presented a proposed agreement yesterday, in which it committed to paying around €70 million of its €240 million debt. The company has proposed that its lender banks take ownership of its assets and that a new manager, controlled by Park Street, in which Husa would own a minority stake, takes care of the operation of the assets.

Husa’s proposal represents an average discount of more than 70%, although it would be distributed very differently depending on the type of creditor. For public and privileged loans, the discount would be around 10%; and for ordinary and subordinate creditors, the discount would increase to 95%.

Original story: Expansión (Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Husa Negotiates With Investors To Overcome Insolvency

29/12/2014 – Expansión

The Husa hotel chain is holding talks with several investors to try to get a partner to inject liquidity and lift it out of the bankruptcy proceedings to which it has been subjected since February, according to Europa Press’s inside sources linked to the proceedings.

Predicted by the incumbent judge of the Commercial Court No. 3 of Barcelona, José María Fernández Seijo, the regular phase of the bankruptcy proceeding will be complete in early January, after which the company must submit an agreement proposal with its creditors.

The Hostelería Unida insolvency proceeding — which brings together a great number of companies from the Husa group — was announced on February 11th, and nine more companies have been added since then.

The group has sold some hotels or transferred profitable business units, including the iconic Hotel Palace in Barcelona, which was transferred to owners who have taken over the management of the establishment and all the employees. The group has also reduced its workforce of about 500 employees to about 200 currently.

According to the report of the insolvency administration, submitted in late October when there were still only six companies in state of insolvency, the group’s negative shareholders’ equity amounted to € 153 million — the difference between its € 68.5 million of consolidated assets and 221.8 of accumulated total liabilities. Administrators had, nonetheless, already predicted that this figure could exceed 200 million due to the likelihood of adding other companies into the proceedings.

Of the group’s debt of 221.8 million euros, 40.2% correspond to public credit–primarily from the Tax Agency and Social Security Servicе; 26.4% to financial creditors–the main ones being CaixaBank and Banco Sabadell; and the remaining 31.3% to general creditors.

Hostelería Unida accounts for the greater chunk of the negative stockholders’ equity – 115.7 million euros, as it has assets worth only 34.7 million euros and liabilities amounting to 150.4 million.

Original article: Expansión (by Europa Press)

Translation: Aura REE