Tag: Matutes family

The Matutes Family Considers Future of the Ayre Hotel in Oviedo

20 January 2018 – La Voz de Asturias

Palladium Hotel Group, the hotel group owned by the Matutes family, is reconsidering the future of its hotel in Oviedo, the Hotel Ayre. The Director-General of the company, Abel Matutes Prats, is considering including the establishments from the Ayre brand within the Only You brand (a concept of boutique city hotels), but it has not ruled out selling certain establishments.

The Ibiza-based hotel company has owned Ayre Hotels together with Parinver, the investment arm of El Corte Inglés since 2006. The chain comprises ten establishments (located in Oviedo, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Córdoba and Sevilla). Some of these hotels may be included within the Only You brand and others may be sold in a commitment by the company to strengthen its hotel management business over hotel ownership. Nevertheless, in August, sources at El Corte Inglés said that “there were no plans afoot to sell any stakes”.

“We are making a significant effort to move towards a management model. We are a company that owns everything and our objective is to move towards a similar mix to that of our competitors. Over the medium term, we have to go down that route”, explained the director who wants to strengthen his firm’s role as a manager through agreements with owners and investment funds to grow faster.

The company considers that in Spain there is space to grow with the Only You brand in places such as Sevilla, Málaga, Valencia, Bilbao and San Sebastian, as well as in other European countries such as Portugal and Italy. “Once we are established in Europe, the plan will be to make the leap to North America”, he revealed.

The hotel group is very satisfied with the performance of its Only You Hotels brand (boutique city hotels), which currently comprises two establishments in Madrid. And the future outlook is so positive that it is looking for new operations for this brand both within and outside of Spain.

“We want to grow quickly with this brand but everything will depend on the welcome it receives when it opens”, said the company’s Director General, Abel Matutes Prats, who explained that the idea is to also incorporate hotels outside of Spain in both cities and tourist areas.

Turnover

With the repositioning of its brands, the hotelier owned by the Matutes family forecasts “an important jump” in terms of revenues over the next two years, which could rise by 10% and whereby exceed the €600 million reached in 2017 thanks to the consolidation of the Only You brand, the opening of new hotels in Mexico at the end of the year and another couple of projects “which are currently under consideration”, but which will also close in 2018.

Palladium closed 2017 with investment in Europe and North America amounting to more than €88 million in terms of renovations and €125 million in new builds. In terms of the hotel company’s objective for the coming year, it plans to spend €50 million on renovations and €180 million on new constructions.

Original story: La Voz de Asturias

Translation: Carmel Drake

Palladium Hotel Group Forecasts Revenues of €600M+ in 2017

4 December 2017 – Expansión

The hotel group Palladium expects to record revenues of more than €600 million this year, although that figure is lower than initially expected due to the renovation of several hotels and the impact on demand of the hurricanes in the Caribbean and the crisis in Cataluña. According to the Director-General of Palladium, Abel Matutes Prats (pictured below), the final result will depend on the firm’s performance during the last stretch of the year, after two strong months in the Caribbean. The hotel chain owned by the Matutues family has registered a good season in Spain, in particular in the urban segment.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hotelier Catalonia Leads Ranking of Spain’s Top 15 Tourism Companies by Gross Margin

24 November 2017 – Preferente

Catalonia, the hotel chain based in Barcelona and owned by the Vallet family, leads the first ranking compiled by preferente.com of the Top 15 Spanish tourism companies by gross margin in 2016, with a 30.2% gross profit on its sales. It is followed by large hotel chains such as the Ibiza-based Palladium, and the Mallorcan-based Grupo Piñero and Riu, which all generated gross margins of more than 20% during the last financial year.

The chain owned by the Matutes family is the second in the ranking after obtaining an estimated gross margin of 28.6% on its sales in 2016; it is followed by the group owned by the Piñero family, which includes the Bahía Príncipe and Soltour businesses, with a gross margin of 24.2%; and the chain owned by the Riu family, with a gross margin of 23.8% and the leader of the ranking by EBITDA.

Completing the Top 5 is another large chain and another Catalan firm: H10, which recorded a gross profit on its sales of 19.8% in 2016, followed by Grupo Barceló, with a gross margin of 14.2%, which would have been greater if it did not include in its sales the intermediation activity of Ávoris, which generates higher volumes but lower margins.

After Group Barceló in the ranking comes Grupo Iberostar, which comprises Almundo and World2Meet; and then the hotel groups NH and Meliá, which all exceeded or equalled a gross profit of 10% of sales in 2016. After those companies come the Canarian firm Lopesan and the Catalan firm Hotusa, which groups together Keytel and Restel, with similar gross margins of around 9% over sales.

A vertically integrated tourism group: an airline, a travel agency and a bed bank follow them in the ranking. At number 12 is Globalia, the parent company of Air Europa and Halcón Viajes, with a gross margin of 3.8% of sales, followed very closely by Iberia (3.7%) and Viajes El Corte Inglés (2.4%). The B2B firm Hotelbeds appears in fifteenth place with an estimated gross margin of 2% in 2016, a year when it had not yet completed the purchase of Tourico and GTA, the first of which generates significant EBITDA.

In this way, according to the ranking prepared by the leading tourism website, the chains with the greatest presence in the Caribbean and those dedicated exclusively to resorts are those that generate the greatest gains with respect to their revenues. Meanwhile, the conglomerates that also include intermediaries would have higher gross margin figures if they only reflected their hotel businesses, given that although they invoice less, they are more profitable.

Original story: Preferente (by Andrea Bulla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Palladium To Invest €450M In New Openings & Renovations

23 January 2017 – Cinco Días

Palladium, the hotel group controlled by the Matutes family, is planning to invest more than €450 million in new openings and renovating its existing establishments, both in Spain as well as in the Caribbean.

The hotel chain, which recorded a turnover of €558 million in 2016, up by 14% compared to the year before, said that it had completed a good year. It also appeared optimistic about the performance of the holiday market in Spain this year, especially in the Balearic Islands, where it has a larger market share.

Abel Matutes Prats, CEO of the company, said that the firm’s growth strategy in terms of number of hotels now involves managing establishments owned by third parties. “We are ready to grow quite a lot in the urban and holiday segments as a hotel manager”, he said.

The company, which has signed an agreement with Hard Rock to bring the hotel brand to mainland Spain – the US firm already has two establishments on the islands, one in Ibiza and another in Tenerife – acknowledges that it has some plans on the table that have not been finalised yet. Not so long ago, Hard Rock was mentioned as the best positioned player to manage the hotel in Edificio España in Madrid.

“There are a couple of hotels in the pipeline, but nothing has been decided yet”, said Matutes Prats, who defends this alliance as “a well-matched marriage”, which is choosing to focus on its latest addition, the opening in Tenerife, at the moment, but which is not ruling out future developments in urban destinations.

The businessman highlights the arrival of Palladium in Asia. “One day we will have to make the jump, but right now it does not form part of our plans. When we move over there, it will be to launch something big”, he said.

Original story: Cinco Días (by L.S.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Edificio España Is Set To Become A Hard Rock Hotel

4 October 2016 – El Confidencial

The countdown to the launch of Trinitario Casanova’s project in Edificio España has begun. The businessman, who has reached an agreement with the Wanda Group to acquire the property, has been given the green light by the Town Hall of Madrid for his plans to convert the skyscraper into a Las Vegas style hotel.

Last Friday, the department of town planning, led by José Manuel Calvo, approved the request submitted by the Baraka Group, the Levantine businessman’s holding company. Its request involves turning the majority of the skyscraper into a large hotel, whilst retaining the protected elements.

With this approval, Casanova now has all of the pieces in place to seal his second major agreement of the year: a 30-year contract with Hard Rock, the hotel empire owned by the Seminole Indians, who have presented Baraka with a firm offer to take over the operation of the Madrilenian skyscraper.

Sources at the Spanish company have acknowledged that conversations are at a very advanced stage, in a process organised by JLL, but that the final rubber stamp still needs to be given. That milestone that will come once the legal representatives of both parties have been completed their corresponding reviews.

The Hard Rock project for Edificio España involves opening a five-star hotel containing almost 600 rooms. The property will be equipped with restaurant and entertainment offerings and will also contain large suites and allow for the use of the roof terrace.

In addition, the approximately 150 parking spaces that the skyscraper already has in its second basement are sufficient for the North American group’s plans. The future hotel will occupy 22 floors of the property, spanning around 67,400 sqm, given that Baraka has reserved the first three floors, covering almost 15,000 sqm, for a large shopping arcade and is, currently, holding conversations with several potential operators.

Hard Rock Hotel’s commitment to Spain

Hard Rock has been looking for a site on which to open a major hotel establishment in Madrid for years and the possibility of doing so on Gran Vía is an opportunity that it does not want to miss, given that this thoroughfare offer all of the leisure, history, shopping and cultural offerings that are demanded by the profile of international tourist that the chain attracts.

The arrival of Edificio España onto the market also comes at a particularly sensitive time for the North American company, which, after several years negotiating with Enrique Bañuelos over the construction of a resort in the BCN World project, has now been told that the Catalan Government has recalculated all of its numbers for the complex and so its future is up in the air.

In Spain, Hard Rock Hotel also holds a concession agreement with Palladium, the group owned by the Matutes family, for its properties on the Balearic and Canary Islands, where the group…owns the Hard Rock Ibiza and Hard Rock Tenerife.

Having received the favourable report from the Town Hall of Madrid, Trinitario Casanova now expects to complete the definitive purchase of Edificio España from the Wanda Group by the middle of the month, and he will then be able to begin the renovation of the property, which is expected to take almost two years.

With this calendar on the table, the future Hard Rock Madrid may open its doors at the end of 2018, which is when the Four Seasons hotel, currently being constructed in the Canalejas Complex, is also due to open. Canalejas is another of the most awaited and controversial developments in the capital, although it should receive its final blessing from Manuela Carmena’s team within the next few days.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake