Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has bought around 35% equity interest in Hotel Investment Partners (HIP) from funds managed by US private equity firm Blackstone for an undisclosed sum.
HIP, which owns resort hotels in Southern Europe, was founded in 2015 and was acquired by the Blackstone funds two years later. The private equity firm remains the majority shareholder with around 65% shareholding after the sale of the stake to GIC.
This is GIC’s first major hospitality deal since September last year, when it acquired an unspecified majority stake in Sani/Ikos Group in a deal that valued the Greece-based luxury beach resort company at 2.3 billion euros (US$2.44 billion).
According to Lee Kok Sun, GIC’s chief investment officer for real estate, the wealth fund is “delighted” to partner with Blackstone and invest in one of the most established Mediterranean Europe hospitality platforms.
“We look forward to working with Blackstone and HIP’s management team as they continue to deliver on HIPs strategy to enhance existing assets, while capitalising on the growing global and domestic demand for high quality Mediterranean resorts,” he says.
HIP founder and Chief Executive Officer Alejandro Hernández-Puértolas describes GIC’s entry into the company along with Blackstone’s controlling interest as “a further vote of confidence in the HIP business and the resort hospitality sector in Europe”.
“The partners’ cumulative size, scale and capital will bolster our ability to continue the transformation of the hotel landscape in Southern Europe,” he says, adding that fundamentals of the hotel market in the region remain strong, with revenue booked by the company for the remainder of the year over 20% ahead of the same period in 2022.
HIP partners with major global hotel operators including Ritz-Carlton, Barceló, Melia, Hyatt, Hilton, Ledra and Marriott. The company now has a portfolio of 72 hotels across Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal, with 10,000 people employed across the properties.