Development

CitizenM raises $1bn to help fund expansion

Insight Comment
CitizenM was one of the pioneers of the affordable (luxury) lifestyle hotel. Now the big hotel brands are growing their presence in the area meaning much more competition. This new funding will give CitizenM  the firepower to enter new markets.

Dutch hotel company CitizenM has raised $1 billion from its existing shareholders to help drive its global expansion plans.

According to Bloomberg, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, Dutch pension fund manager APG Asset Management and CitizenM founder Rattan Chadha’s KRC Capital, all participated in the round.

CitizenM will use more than half of the money to add new hotels with the rest earmarked for helping the company complete existing projects as well as to replace lost revenue as a result of the pandemic.

“It has not been business as usual, but the long-term strategy with our shareholders is unchanged,” CEO Klaas van Lookeren Campagne said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We are patient. We have all gone through many crises in the past.”

Like with many of companies in the hotel industry, CitizenM is struggling in the current labour market and van Lookeren Campagne said this had increased the cost of development in certain US cities.

The company will have around 24 hotels open by the end of 2021, with 40 or more planned for by the end of 2024.

CitizenM was founded by Rattan Chadha in 2005. In 2019 GIC acquired a 25% equity interest in the company at an enterprise value of €2 billion.