Tag: manager

The Salazar Family Sells Hotel Velázquez For €63M

26 July 2016 – El Confidencial

Beset by debt, the Salazar family, the former owner of SOS-Cuétara, has spent the last three years trying to get rid of its vast hotel and real estate empire, an emporium whose last great jewel was the Gran Hotel Velázquez in Madrid, a property for which it has just received an irresistible offer.

Corporacion Hispano Hotelera, the company owned by the Salazar-Bello family, has reached an agreement with the Didra Group, famous for having constructed the luxurious residential areas of Montepríncipe and El Encinar, to sell the property for €63 million, according to several sources close to the deal.

The Ardid Villoslada family, which is behind Didra, has been linked to the property development business for decades and was made famous due to the marriage of one of its members, Rafael, to Mariola Martínez Borduí, the granddaughter of the dictator Francisco Franco. One of their sons, Jaime Ardid Martínez Bordiú has closed this agreement, with a view to opening a luxury 5-star hotel.

On 23 August 2016, Corporación Hispano Hotelera will present this sale for approval by the General Shareholders’ Meeting, with the aim of wrapping up the final sale in January, once the Salazar family has also received the blessing from its creditor banks, led by Banco Popular.

With its privileged location, in the heart of the neighbourhood of Salamanca, just a stone’s throw from the Retiro Park and the capital’s golden mile, the Gran Hotel Velázquez is a sought-after establishment. Nevertheless, it needs to be completely refurbished, according to experts in the sector.

In fact, Didra is expected to invest between €15 million and €20 million refurbishing the property. It plans to retain the image of a more bourgeois Madrid that characterises it, and always under the maxim of reserving the right to manage it, meaning that the Ardid family’s plans do not include opening a large hotel chain.

Didra maintains a close relationship with brands such as AC and NH, with which it operates some of the properties in its hotel group Nevertheless, the plans that the Ardid family have in mind for the Gran Hotel Velázquez more closely resemble the concept of the Hotel Palacio de Villapanés in Sevilla, a 5-star property located in the neighbourhood of Santa Cruz, in a former seventeenth century palace, which Didra manages itself.

With this sale, Corporación Hispano Hotelera will be reduced to an empty shell, after selling off the majority of its hotels in just over two years. The house of cards first started to topple in the Spring of 2014, when it had to close down Hotel Ada Palace, located on Gran Vía in Madrid, after it was evicted by the owner of the property, Real Gran Peña, which denounced the company for not paying the rent.

A year later, Hotusa purchased the Hotel María Elena, located 50m from Puerta del Sol, and renamed it the Eurostars Casa de la Lírica; meanwhile, Platinum Estates acquired the Hotel Asturias, in Plaza de Canalejas for €21.5 million. (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Som Hotels Acquires Hotel Millor Gardens In Mallorca

20 June 2016 – Preferente.com

Som Hotels, the hotel chain led by Joan Enric Capellà and Vicenç Miralles (two former directors of the Piñero Group who launched the Som Hotels chain), has purchased the Hotel Millor Garden (Cala Millor, Mallorca), which they have renamed the Som Llevant Suite. As such, the Mallorcan chain adds a fourth property to its portfolio.

Som Hotels’ latest acquisition has 86 rooms and following a refurbishment, which “will begin in November and last the whole winter”, will increase its category to become a four star hotel.

Although the purchase of Millor Garden has already been completed, “the former owner will continue to operate the property this year and we will take over the management from next year onwards”, said Capellà, who indicated that “the Hotel Som Llevant Suites will open its doors in April 2017”.

The hotel chain, which opened its first property, Som Fona (S’Illot, Cala Millor), in the Balearic Islands last year is in the middle of an expansion process. Just a month ago, it opened two more hotels, Hotel Som Far (Aucanada, Alcudia) with 45 rooms and Son Llaüt Boutique Hotel (Can Picafort) with 24 rooms, both four star properties on the beachfront.

Original story: Preferente.com

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hispania Buys 3 Hotels In Ibiza For €32M

14 June 2016 – Expansión

Hispania has purchased 100% of the shares in the company Real Estate San Miguel, which owns three hotels in Ibiza – the Hotel Galeón (4 stars and 182 rooms), the Hotel Cartago (3 stars and 196 rooms) and the Hotel Club San Miguel (3 stars and 106 rooms) -, for €32 million.

In addition, Real Estate San Miguel is the owner of several apartments next to Hotel Cartago and a restaurant attached to the Hotel Club San Miguel. The assets are all located in Cala de San Miguel, on the beachfront.

Hispania will undertake major investments in these properties, depending on the final category (star rating) of the hotels and the outcomes of the negotiatios with the operators.

Investment in renovation work

Specifically, the Socimi controlled by Azora and in which George Soros owns a stake, plans to carry out a complete renovation of the three hotels at the end of the 2017 season. The initial planned investment amounts to €35 million.

The plans of the company, which debuted on the stock exchange in March 2014, involve maintaining the current operators of the hotels until the end of the 2017 season, when the management of the three assets will revert to a single operator.

Currently, Iberostar operates Hotel Galeón, whilst Stella Polaris is responsible for the management of the other two establishments. The Socimi will now analyse which hotel chain is, in its opinion, the most suitable to take on the management of its new hotels in Ibiza from 2017 onwards.

This operation, advised by Aguirre Newman, allows Hispania to strengthen its commitment to the vacation hotel sector in the Balearic Islands and, specifically, in Ibiza, where it already owns the recently repositioned Hotel Barceló Pueblo Ibiza.

Hispania also owns a stake in Bay Hotels & Leisure – the Socimi created together with Barceló in 2015, which also focuses on the vacation hotel segment – . The company’s share price fell by 4.3% on the stock exchange yesterday to close at €11.33/share.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

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