French investment group Eurazeo is teaming up with one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers to launch a new hospitality joint venture with their first investment being Spain’s FST Hotels.
The agreement with the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) will see the pair focus on investing in hotels across Europe targeting large assets or portfolios well-positioned to benefit from the sector’s recovery.
Initially, the partners plan to invest up to €300 million of equity in hotel assets or portfolios across Europe, which offer significant potential to unlock value through upgrades and targeted asset management initiatives. Eurazeo and PSP Investments will invest equal amounts in the joint venture.
The partnership has agreed to buy FST Hotels, a Spanish hotel group that owns and operates an 800-room portfolio across five hotels, primarily located in Madrid and Barcelona. The hotel group, operating under the Ayre brand, will be acquired from Grupo Empresas Matutes and El Corte Inglés. The hotels will undergo refurbishment, repositioning and rebranding to take full advantage of the anticipated hotel industry recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Completion of this transaction remains subject to clearance by the relevant antitrust authorities and should take place by the end of March.
In line with all future investments of the partnership, a refurbishment program will be carried out with a focus on monitoring and reducing water consumption, energy usage, and carbon emissions to support climate action.
What They Said
Renaud Haberkorn, managing partner of Real Assets at Eurazeo said: “Since establishing our real estate division in 2015, Eurazeo has invested almost €900 million of equity from its balance sheet in real estate opportunities targeting properties and companies with underlying real estate assets across Europe. Exits to date have delivered strong performance and, with our proven track record, we are now looking to invite like-minded third-party partners to invest alongside us in a pan-European opportunistic real estate investment program. We are thrilled to welcome PSP Investments as our first partner in a dedicated hospitality partnership, as part of this program.”
Stéphane Jalbert, managing director, head of Asia-Pacific and Europe, real estate investments, PSP Investments, said: “We anticipate the hospitality sector in Europe will present an attractive recovery play as travel resumes and, together with Eurazeo, are working to capitalize on this opportunity. We are excited to have established this new partnership with Eurazeo - with their proven expertise in the hospitality sector - and look forward to exploring further investment opportunities together.”