Tag: vacation hotels

Bankinter’s Hotel Socimi Atom will Make its MAB Debut with a Valuation of €265.7M

21 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Atom is lining up to make its debut on the stock market. Bankinter’s hotel Socimi will ring the bell soon on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) with a portfolio comprising 21 assets located all over Spain. The company will make its debut with a valuation of €265.7 million and a share price of €10.60 after the stock market regulator issued a favourable report for its inclusion on the alternative market, scheduled for before the end of the year.

Atom’s main partner is the Melià Group, which operates six of its establishments. In addition, the Socimi has agreements with AC Hotel by Marriott, Eurostars, Ibersol and B&B, amongst other chains.

Twelve of the company’s hotels are vacation properties, and the remaining nine are urban assets; most are four-star establishments. The properties are worth €483.5 million altogether, according to an independent valuation of the portfolio carried out by EY.

In addition to Bankinter, which owns 5.3% of the shares, other shareholders of the management company include Alcor, which controls 5% of the shares; Mistral Iberia Real Estate, with 5.15%; and Línea Directa Aseguradora, with 2%.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hispania Plans To Invest €300M In Hotels In 2017

5 June 2017 – Expansión

The Socimi, managed by Azora and in which George Soros holds a stake, debuted on the stock market in March 2014, with the aim of raising funds with which to buy assets over a three-year period and to improve them.

For the next three years, it planned to focus on managing those assets, with a view to selling them all before March 2020 in order to ensure that its shareholders made profits on their investments

Now, this plan will continue for some of its current portfolio, specifically, for its rental homes (worth around €230 million) and offices (around €520 million), whereas for its hotel assets (more than €1,200 million), “it now makes the most sense for us to change shareholders”, explained the Director General of Hispania and Director of Corporate Development at Azora, Cristina García-Peri.

The idea of selling the assets, making cash and distributing it with a large dividend made sense where we were dealing with diverse assets, but nowadays 70% of Hispania’s portfolio “is worth more together than separate”, she said.

For this reason, the Socimi is going to divest its residential rental assets, homes that it is selling off one by one, and the 25 office buildings that it holds in Madrid and Barcelona.

The gross value of those offices amounts to €520 million although, it is likely that the sales price will be higher because the company has received indicative offers for values that exceed that figure, said García-Peri, who highlighted that these types of assets are still proving to be “very attractive” because rental prices are rising and interest rates are still low.

In terms of its hotels, Hispania, which currently owns 37 establishments, will continue buying new units until the end of the year, given that its shareholders decided that the acquisitions should continue beyond March, the deadline that had been set initially.

“We are looking at block operations as well as certain individual deals”, explained the Director at Hispania, who said that they are continuing to focus on vacation hotels where international clients predominate.

“We have a fantastic portfolio in a very powerful industry, which has a lot of potential to keep growing. It is a product that allows us to diversify”, she added.

García-Peri underlined that, for this reason, bringing about a change of control is now the most “efficient” option for the current shareholders.

The Director said that she doesn’t know whether any of Hispania’s current shareholders will continue with the company beyond 2020. She also discounted the possibility that any hotel group could be interested in buying Hispania’s assets because many of the establishments are managed by operators with lease contracts that span more than ten years.

“We have created an alternative portfolio, with a product that is very well understood”, highlighted García-Peri, who confirmed that Azora will continue investing in hotels, “without a doubt”, both in Spain and overseas, and that it may continue managing Hispania beyond 2020, if the new shareholders so wish.

Currently, Hispania’s major shareholders include Soros Fund Management (16.678%) and FMR (7.589%).

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Optimism Abounds Amongst Spain’s Hotel Chains

10 April 2017 – Expansión

Meliá, Barceló, RIU and other groups are hanging the “No vacancy” sign up in top destinations and are increasing their prices, thanks to the pull of the overseas market and the recovery in domestic tourism.

The tourism sector is on a roll and the main Spanish chains – Meliá, Barceló, Iberostar, RIU, Grupo Piñero and Palladium – are getting ready to break records once again. The positive trend in demand, the pull of international tourism in both archipelagos, and the recovery in the domestic market in regions such as Andalucía are allowing the hotel groups to hang the “No vacancy” sign up in some of their destinations, such as in the Canary Islands, and achieve occupancy rates of between 80% and 90% in the Balearic Islands and Andalucía.

Despite the uncertainty generated by Brexit, the British market remains a mainstay for the hotel chains, alongside Germany and Central Europe, in addition to the recovery in domestic demand.

For example, Meliá forecasts growth of more than 6% in its average occupancy rate in vacation hotels in Spain, as well as an improvement in prices with respect to 2016. The markets with the greatest pull for the chain owned by the Escarrer family are the British and Central European, whilst demand from domestic tourists continues its upwards trend.

Meanwhile, Barceló forecasts growth of 6% in its occupancy rate at hotels in the Balearic Islands, with an average occupancy rate of 81% and an average room rate of €110, which represents an increase of 13% with respect to the previous year. In terms of Andalucía, the volume of reservations corresponds to forecast occupancy rates of more than 90% and an improvement of 26% in prices, according to the company.

In the case of Iberostar, the hotel chain owned by the Fluxá family forecasts an occupancy rate of almost 100% over the Easter holidays. Iberostar highlights the good performance of the United Kingdom, Benelux and Germany, compared with countries in Eastern Europe, where demand is “more stagnant”.

In terms of room rates, Iberostar states that prices have improved moderately, by between 2% and 3% on average.

For RIU, the economic situation in the Canary Islands, with very high occupancy rates, means it has little margin for growth, however, there is still scope for increases at the hotels on the Costa del Sol, which have been completely refurbished this season. (…). In terms of the best markets, RIU highlights German tourists, as well as a considerable improvement in the number of reservations from Scandinavian and British clients, plus a 5% increase in domestic tourism.

Meanwhile, Palladium highlights the sweet moment that Ibiza is enjoying. “The season has opened early on the island, with a large volume of tourists visiting in April. This has been made possible by hotels opening early and new flight connections”. Overall, hotel occupancy rates have risen by 4%, whilst prices have increased by 2.5% YoY, for the time being, in line with the annual forecast increase of 7%.

Finally, Grupo Piñero says that its three hotels in Tenerife area already full, with an improvement in prices of between 4% and 8%.

Optimism

And the euphoria of the hotel chains extends beyond Easter. The large hotel groups expect to set new records in 2017. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Millenium Group Resumes Its Hotel Socimi’s Activity

15 March 2017 – Cinco Días

The Millenium group has resumed its plans to launch a hotel Socimi. Following a break caused by the absence of a Government and the misgivings of some of its investors, the company has returned to the project.

The aim of the firm led by Javier Illán, which has now constituted the Socimi Millenium Hotels Real Estate, involves listing the company on the stock market in 2019, whereby maximising the term permitted for that purpose. Meanwhile, the vehicle is working hard to secure high profile investors and acquire hotel establishments.

Millenium plans to raise around €400 million from investors and expects that its Socimi will have a market valuation of between €650 million and €700 million when its debuts. For the time being, the company does not have a registered advisor for its debut on the stock market, but it has received support from investors who have participated in its investments since 2000, including large homegrown and overseas real estate mutual institutions and pension funds.

For new investors, Millenium has established a minimum entry ticket of €5 million. Moreover, it has not ruled out the possibility of allowing hotel owners to take a share in its share capital in exchange for “gifting” the property to its portfolio. Regarding the debut on the stock market, the company may open up another stock tranche, with a lower minimum investment of around €250,000, to give liquidity to its shares.

The vehicle is expected to acquire around thirty hotels, including those that the group already owns, such as the Hesperia on Paseo de la Castellana, the Hotusa in Plaza de Castilla and the Tryp Chamberí, all in the centre of Madrid.

The Socimi will acquire urban and vacation hotels, however, Javier Illán states that they are also analysing cities that receive lots of tourist visitors. Besides Madrid and Barcelona, he points to other major capitals such as Málaga, Sevilla, Córdoba, Granada, Bilbao, San Sebastián and Valencia. The Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, together with the Costa del Sol, will be its areas of focus in the vacation segment, all areas that have been under the spotlight of domestic and international investors alike, over the last year.

This year, Illán hopes to close around ten acquisitions on which he expects to spend around €200 million. He also acknowledges that the company is holding talks with all of the hotel chains interested in operating lease contracts.

For the time being, none of these operations has materialised and the hope is that they will be completed one by one and not in batches to avoid acquiring unwanted assets.

The Director also assures that he intends for 70% of the portfolio of establishments to require investment for their repositioning and refurbishment (value added, in English), which whereby differentiates it from the model adopted by Hispania in the vehicle that it created together with Barceló: Bay.

The group, which specialises in the development of luxury residential properties and commercial premises is carrying out detailed analysis with a view to creating a Board of Directors for the Socimi, which will mainly comprise independent directors.

Original story: Cinco Días (by L. Salces and A. Simón)

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

HI Partners Buy A Hotel From Lopesan For €42M

18 July 2016 – Expansión

HI Partners have completed a new operation in the hotel investment market. The subsidiary of Banco Sabadell has just acquired a four-star, 402-room hotel on Playa del Inglés, on the island of Gran Canaria for €42.4 million. Until now, the property, known as the IFA Catarina, which overlooks the Dunas de Maspalomas, belonged to the IFA Hotel & Touristik Group, which is listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange. That company is controlled by the Spanish hotel group Lopesan (52% stake), with whom HI Partners has signed a “sale and management back” contract, which means that it will continue operating the hotel after the sale.

The aim of HI Partners is to invest €7 million in IFA Catarina to refurbish its rooms and improve the hotel’s facilities, which will include areas dedicated exclusively to adult customers only.

This is the first operation that HI Partners has completed in the Canary Islands. This year, the hotel investment and management company has also purchased Hotel Terramar de Sitges (Barcelona) and its portfolio now contain 25 properties. In March, it joined forces with the US fund Starwood Capital to invest €500 million in the purchase of vacation hotels, although this operation falls outside of that agreement.

Original story: Expansión (by Sergi Sabori)

Translation: Carmel Drake