Bankinter Launches Victoria Hotels & Resorts With 8-Hotel Portfolio Acquisition from Meliá

Main Photo: The Gran Hotel Melia, one of the eight hotels acquired to create Victoria Hotels & Resorts

Date: July 2021

Names & Locations: Gran Meliá Victoria (Mallorca), Meliá Tamarindos (Gran Canaria), Meliá Granada, Sol Beach House Menorca, Meliá Salinas (Lanzarote), Innside Bosque (Mallorca), Meliá Atlanterra (Cadiz) and Innside Zaragoza….all in Spain

Number of Keys: 1,945

Seller: Meliá Hotels International has closed the sale of a 8-hotels portfolio for €203.9 million 

Buyer: Spanish bank Bankinter has acquired a 1,945-room portfolio of eight hotels from operator Meliá Hotels International by taking a majority stake in a deal that values the new venture at a reported €203.9 million (€105,000 per room). The deal also involved investor GMA and a small number of Bankinter’s high-net-worth clients and institutional investors.

“It is a great honour for the team of GMA Corporate to be part of one of the most significant European hotel transactions of 2021 while we remain as asset and property managers of the 8 hotels portfolio. This transaction strengthens even more the relationship between Meliá International, Bankinter and GMA Corporate. In a post-corona world, we will work together as a team to contribute to the recovery of the hospitality industry, making it more sustainable and more resilient “, said Víctor Martí, Founder and CEO of GMA.

GMA corporate accounts an extensive experience in managing hotel portfolios, in part, thanks to ATOM SOCIMI, Spain`s leading hotel REIT with 28 assets in the country. Alongside this transaction, GMA Corporate intends to work together with different partners to pursue future hotel investments across Europe, drawing upon its hospitality experience and track record in hotel investment.

In recent years, the GMA team has participated in more than 400 transactions and taken part in hotel projects worth more than €5,000 million. Today, it manages over €1 billion in assets. It’s parent company is GMA Capital, a founder partner of ATOM Hotels SOCIMI together with Bankinter.

The transaction includes six hotels owned by Meliá and participation in a company that owns another two. Meliá will continue to operate the properties and will also hold a 7.5% stake in the new company.

Six of the properties are expected to undergo major renovations, with an expected capex investment of more than €125 million. The new company will be known as Victoria Hotels & Resorts.

Excluding the residual interest of the hotel chain, taxes and other costs, the impact on the Meliá Group’s cash flow is €170m, generating accounting gains of approximately €62m.

The hotel company has stated that it is fulfilling its commitment to undertake an asset sale to increase its liquidity after the crisis caused by Covid-19. The transaction also reinforces the company’s asset rotation strategy and the consolidation of its management model.

From the buyer side, the transaction was structured by Bankinter Investment, Bankinter’s investment banking arm.

Over the last five years, Bankinter Investment has successfully launched 16 alternative investment vehicles with committed capital in excess of €3 billion. It has a portfolio of assets under management of more than €5 billion, including project finance.

Price: €203.9m

Price per Key: €104,833

THPT Comment: Interesting move from Bankinter and it’s HNWC, to create this new hotel brand, managed by Melia. No doubt more to come. Great price. Melia’s second move in a week, with the opening of a new hotel in Frankfurt, Germany.

First Seen: Iberian Property

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