Minor Hotel Group has acquired Portugal’s Tivoli Hotels & Resorts, marking its entry into Europe and Latin America, TTG Asia reported. The deal is seen as a precursor to further expansion in the region for the company as it looks to build its portfolio having established a track record of success in Asia.
The transaction is the largest ever in Portugal’s hospitality sector, and the biggest deal Minor has ever undertaken. Minor paid EUR284 million for Tivoli, according to the website. With the deal Minor adds a little under 3,000 additional rooms at approximately EUR102,000 per key but will look to improve this figure. Minor will take over all 12 of Tivoli’s properties in Portugal as well as two in Brazil.
“Portugal is coming out of the financial crisis, and the euro is fairly weak,” Dillip Rajakarier, chief executive of Minor Hotel Group, which is part of the larger Minor International Public Co. said. “We see a lot of Chinese tourists in Europe, and Portugal is one of the nicest tourist destinations there.”
Minor does not plan to rebrand Tivoli and Rajakarier added that the chain will be kept as a separate four- to five-star brand within the group. Anantara and Avani are just a couple of the other hotel brands owned and operated by Minor.
According to TTG Asia, Minor will look to its prior acquisition of the Oaks Hotels and Resorts range as a template of how it will proceed with Tivoli. Rajakarier stated that Minor will adopt similar long-term growth strategies to reposition Tivoli as a global brand instead of a national one. The company will begin investigating the possibility of expanding into other Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Angola and Mozambique, to start off with.
“We would like to extend our base into other European countries,” he claimed. “We are looking at Spain, the UK, Germany, Norway and other Nordic countries. There are other deals I hope can be announced (within a year).”
Image: Tivoli Victoria Vilamoura Hotel
