B&B Sells 8 Hotels In Spain To Corum For €30M

19 May 2017 – Expansión

The hotel chain B&B Hotels and the investment fund Corum have reached an agreement to allow the former to divest the assets that it owns in Spain, whilst continuing to manage them, and the latter to strengthen its presence in the country with the purchase of eight hotels.

According to the terms of the agreement, B&B will sell the establishments to Corum for €30 million, although it will continue to operate them under a lease arrangement for at least 15 years. The hotels included in this operation are located in Figueres, Girona, Granollers, Mollet, Viladecans, Valencia, Albacete and Fuenlabrada.

The two groups also plan to explore new opportunities to collaborate in Spain and Portugal during 2017.

B&B Hotels, owned by the fund PAI Partners, operates 20 hotels in Spain after it purchased the low-cost chain Sidorme last October. The French hotel group, which tripled its turnover in Spain in 2016, to exceed €20 million, wants to double in size in the country within three years and is evaluating its expansion into Portugal.

Meanwhile, the real estate investment fund Corum, which manages more than €1,300 million in assets across Europe, is planning to invest more than €450 million in various European countries, including Spain, in 2017.

Corum made its debut in Spain in 2013 with the purchase of a commercial property in Tarragona. This is the sixth operation that the fund has completed in the country.

For Jairo González, CEO of B&B Hotels in Spain and Portugal, this operation allows the chain to “lighten the load” on its balance sheet in Spain to be able to incorporate more hotels into its network.

Philippe Cervesi, Director of Investment at Corum, said that the agreement reflects Corum’s capacity to find “interesting assets, with a good return and excellent guarantees, in an attractive market such as Spain”.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Marbella’s Hotel Don Miguel Will Reopen In 2019

4 May 2017 – Hosteltur

The Magna Hotels and Resorts group will invest €70 million in order to reopen Hotel Don Miguel de Marbella in 2019, fifteen years after it was closed. The property will be managed by Club Med and will be a high-end complex aimed at family tourism.

The project will result in the creation of around 300 jobs during the construction phase, as well as of many permanent jobs once it has been reopened, according to the President of Magna Hotels and Resorts, Jihad D. Megharief, and the Vice-President of Club Med, Gregory Lanter, both speaking at a press conference.

Megharief explained that the Arab investor group, which has owned the hotel since 2013, conducted an 18-month selection process to choose Club Med as the “most appropriate” operator from more than twenty candidates, which means that the French group will manage “this resort successfully for twenty years”.

“We are very happy to be investing €70 million in the transformation of an iconic hotel to convert it into the most important family resort in Spain”, said the President of Magna Hotels and Resorts, who highlighted that the project “is going to bring a lot of prosperity to Marbella”.

The event to unveil the hotel initiative was chaired by the mayor of Marbella, José Bernal, and was attended by the CEO of the public company for Tourism and Sport in Andalucía, Javier Carnero.

One of the best resorts on the planet

The complex, which will be called Magna Palace, will have 486 rooms and almost 1,000 beds. It expects to attract between 30,000 and 40,000 clients per year, according to remarks by the Vice-President of Club Med, who said that the resort will be aimed at families with children aged over 4 months.

Lanter explained that the hotel will also have several swimming pools, a golf course, sports facilities, a spa, two restaurants, a stage and significant facilities for conferences, with the aim of also appealing to European business tourists.

The leader of the French operator said that the project “is a wonderful idea that is already underway” and that it will convert an iconic hotel on the Costa del Sol into “the best Club Med complex on the Mediterranean and one of the best resorts on the planet”.

The heads of Magna Hotels and Resorts and Club Med thanked the Town Hall of Marbella for its support and requested backing from the Junta de Andalucía because “this project will only be a success if we continue to move forward together”.

Meanwhile, Bernal highlighted the importance “not only of reopening the hotel, but also of doing so with the backing of the two exclusive firms”, and the repercussions that the investment will have for Marbella in terms of employment .

Original story: Hosteltur

Translation: Carmel Drake

Corpfin Capital Will Build New Retail Complex In Alcorcón

19 October 2016 – Inmodiario

Corpfin Capital Retail Parks, a vehicle managed by Corpfin Capital Real Estate (CCREP) has acquired a plot of land in the municipality of Alcorcón, in the Community of Madrid. The plot has a surface area of 13,501 sqm and an above-ground buildable area of 8,000 sqm. It is located on the main avenue of Ensanche Sur, a new development area in the town.

The objective of the investment vehicle is to construct a retail complex that it hopes will bring life to a neighbourhood that does not currently have any retail offering. The project forecasts an investment, including land purchase and construction costs, of approximately €11 million.

The vehicle has already signed a contract with Supermercado Simply to open a 4,000 sqm store on the site. The rest of the complex (the remaining 4,000 sqm) is still being marketed and advanced negotiations are being held with several operators.

The firm considers this project to be an important stimulus for the area, given that it expects it to create around 100 direct jobs.

Corpfin Capital Retail Parks was created with the aim of acquiring land in Spain, on which to manage, develop and construct shopping centres (Retail Parks) and to subsequently lease the assets to first rate operators.

The vehicle, which has an investment capacity of almost €45 milliion, represents a way of allowing Corpofin Capital Real Estate to diversify its business, which has been focused until now on the acquisition of prime retail premises in Spain’s main cities. In this way, the company is backing a different niche in the market, namely: retail parks.

This represents the vehicle’s second operation and its first in the Community of Madrid, following the inauguration of the Las Moruchas Retail Park in Ávila in June. (…).

Original story: Inmodiario

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

Meliá & the CIO Group Bury The Hatchet

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

Merlin Competes With Hispania To Become Largest Hotel Socimi

26 July 2016 – Expansión

Merlin, which has incorporated several hotels into its portfolio following its purchase of Testa, now owns 24 properties worth €654 million. Merlin is the largest real estate company and Socimi in Spain.

The merger between Merlin and Metrovacesa will create the largest real estate company and Socimi in Spain, market leader in the office segment and with a leading position in the shopping centre sector. In addition, the new Merlin will be one of the largest hotel lease operators in Spain, which will allow it to catch up with Hispania, the Socimi in which the investor George Soros holds a stake.

Following the integration with Metrovacesa, Merlin will go from owning 12 hotels worth €398 million to having 24 hotels with a gross asset value (GAV) of €654 million. In this way, the new Merlin will increase the value of its assets by 1.6 times following the integration, which is expected to be closed during Q4 2016, after the competition authorities and the general shareholders’ meetings of both companies have approved the deal.

By number of rooms, the union of Merlin and Metrovacesa will give rise to a hotel lease giant, with almost 4,500 rooms and a gross yield of 5.8%. The operation will also allow the group to increase the appeal and liquidity of its hotel division. The hotel business will account for around 7% of the new Merlin, which will have an total asset portfolio worth €9,300 million.

The company’s integrated portfolio of assets will include hotels as iconic as the Eurostars de las Cuatro Torres, inherited from Testa and the Barceló Torre, inherited from Metrovacesa, both located in Madrid.

Ranking

For the time being, Hispania leads Spain’s ranking of the owners of hotels operated and managed by third parties, both in terms of the number of rooms and asset value. At the end of the first quarter, Hispania’s hotel portfolio included 8,234 hotel rooms in total, across 27 hotels, as well as two shopping centres and a plot of land, with a gross value of €862 million. In addition, in March, Hispania acquired the mortgage debt of Dunas Hotels & Resorts from several financial institutions, whereby acquiring 1,183 rooms in four hotels. The group, which owns the Hotel Guadalmina Spa & Golf (Marbella) and the Holiday Inn Bernabéu (Madrid) also bought the Hotel Oasis Resort (Lanzarote) last week. Following that operation, Hispania now owns 35 hotels and more than 10,400 rooms. Merlin’s hotel lease contracts all involve fixed rents, whereas Hispania operates using all types of lease contracts. Some include variable components linked to the evolution of the business. Currently, that is the most common type of lease contract in the hotel sector.

Exit

Nevertheless, Merlin has described its hotel division as “non strategic”, “which means that, in the medium term, it will be looking for a way out of this arm of its business”.

Sources in the sector believe that, if it chooses to exit the hotel business in a single transaction, then we will see a record-breaking operation in the hotel market. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

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

Hispania Buys Hotel Paradise Portinatx In Ibiza For €11M

19 July 2016 – Expansión

The Socimi Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios has acquired 100% of the shares in the company Later Deruser, owner of the Hotel Paradise Portinatx in Ibiza (Balearic Islands), for €11 million, which will now be operated by Barceló.

Hispania has performed the operation through its subsidiary Bay Hotels & Leisure, according to a statement filed with Spain’s National Securities and Markets Commission (CNMV).

Hotel Paradise Portinatx is a three-star facility, with 134 rooms.

As part of its investment strategy, Hispania will undertake a comprehensive refurbishment of the property, spending approximately €8 million, to increase it to an “adult only” 4-star hotel.

The Barceló Group will operate the hotel through a lease contract (with fixed and variable elements) under a framework agreement that covers all of the hotels operated by the group.

The asset is located on Playa de Portinatx, right on the beach. The town of Portinatx, in the north of the island, is seeing a significant upgrade of its hotel offerings.

According to available data about occupancy rates and average revenues per room, Ibiza has established itself as one of the primary destinations in the Mediterranean.

Hispania considers that there are still attractive investment opportunities in the hotel sector, as it gains presence in vacation destinations with growth potential, as well as in privileged locations.

According to the CEO of Hispania, Concha Osácar, this operation shows, once again, that the Balearic Islands – and Ibiza in particular, which is the best performing island in the region – are a key market for Hispania.

Currently, Hispania owns four hotels on the island: the recently repositioned Hotel Barceló Pueblo Ibiza, and three hotels recently purchased in Cala de San Miguel, which will be repositioned in 2017.

Original story: Expansión

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