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Abu Dhabi invests 600 million in the purchase of 17 hotels in Spain

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) closed the week with one of the most important hotel operations in recent years. The transaction is the most relevant in the hotel segment, even surpassing the amount of some operations recorded in 2018, a year where record highs were made with investments of €4.81 billion. 

It was confirmed that the contract was sealed this week and the transaction was finalized at around EUR 600 million, down from the EUR 700 million at which the deal was initially agreed between buyer and seller.

The transaction will have to be approved by the European competition authorities, which could veto it.

The seventeen hotels agreed in the contract are: the ME Madrid Reina Victoria hotel (the most representative) located in the center of Madrid, along with five other Meliá hotels in Madrid, Marbella, A Coruña, Chiclana de la Frontera and Baqueira Beret.

Eight remaining hotels of the Tryp brand (two of them are located on Madrid's Gran Vía) and three properties of the Sol brand.

The hotels originally belonged to the Equity Inmuebles fund. The firm comprises the Calero, Briones and Mazin families and is related to the Tryp chain, which since 1999 has been allied with Meliá.

So far, this is the third agreement signed by the Balearic hotel company with ADIA to increase the volume of its hotel business. The consulting firm JLL advised the selling party. The previous agreement was for seven hotels with joint participation of the Balearic hotel company and the Avenue Capital fund.

According to the sellers' sources, Meliá will continue to manage the aforementioned hotels. In fact, the most representative hotels in the transaction are expected to undergo a renovation and transformation process supervised by Meliá.

Just three weeks ago was the Balearic hotelier's last alliance, when it reached an agreement with Banca March to create a Joint Venture. There were three hotels in which the financial entity kept 80% of them and the remaining 20% Meliá, which will operate the properties. The deal consists of one hotel in Ibiza and two in Fuerteventura: Sol Beach House Ibiza, Meliá Fuerteventura and Innside Fuerteventura.