Minor Hotels Acquires Stake in Corbin & King

Date: December 2017

Location: London, UK

Name: Corbin & King – 6 iconic restaurants – The Wolseley, Brasserie Zedel, The Delauney, Fischer’s, Bellanger, (these two most recent), Colbert and the five-star 73 room Beaumont Hotel.

The Deal: Minor Hotels announced that it has taken a significant stake in Corbin & King. The new investment replaces a previous shareholding by the private equity company Graphite Capital.

Corbin & King co-founders Jeremy King and Chris Corbin will remain shareholders and Jeremy will continue to be CEO to run the business, founded in 2003 which they have built into an illustrious restaurant and hospitality portfolio across London

Seller: Graphite Capital, a private equity firm, who raised £500m in 2013 for their Graphite Capital Partners VIII fund, which interests in a diverse portfolio of companies including Hawksmoor (restaurants), New World Trading Co. (pubs) and City & County Healthcare Group in the leisure/hospitality sector.

Buyer: Minor hotels, headed up by Bill Heinecke and Dillip Rajakarier, currently have a portfolio of 157 hotels and resorts in 24 countries across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe, South America, Africa and the Indian Ocean, Largely the hotels are under their own brands –  Anantara, AVANI, Elewana, Oaks (Australia), St. Regis and Tivoli (Portugal & Brazil), but include Four Seasons and Marriott. Confounding the issue of hoteliers not being restaurateurs, Minor also have 2,000 restaurants (albeit largely fast food branded businesses) as well as 300 retail outlets.

THPT Comment: Replacing Graphite with Minor Hotels makes a lot of sense for Corbin & King. Great move for Minor giving them their second toe-hold in Europe (Tivoli in Portugal being their first). An interesting company started in 1978 by William Heinecke, a US born hotelier, who took up Thai citizenship in 1992.

First Seen: Hotel Management