Azora creates a venture capital fund to invest in hotels in Europe

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

Azora advances in its recent commitment to invest in hotels and hostels in Europe.

The real estate agency has just registered a new venture capital fund with the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) with which it takes the first step in establishing this vehicle that plans to invest up to 1.3 billion euros. Previously, the manager has already promoted the Hispania hotel socimi, which has disappeared after the acquisition by Blackstone.

As registered with the CNMV, the management company has baptized its new fund as Azora European Hotel & Lodging. The company has finally decided to implement the vehicle through a venture capital fund for an adventure announced in May.

This fund will buy properties in southern Europe, including Spain, which are then operated by hotel chains. The choice of a venture capital fund is not common in the real estate market, but from the company it is explained that the choice of this type of vehicle responds precisely to the demands of the tourism sector. Hotel chains are committed to management contracts, instead of rent payments, so these funds are better adapted, according to the real estate agency.

“The new hotel investment vehicle of Azora has been structured through a venture capital fund, in order to adapt to the trends of the hotel sector since hotel operators are more familiar with the signing of management contracts, compared to the rental agreements This initiative adapts to the nature of Azora to focus on value-added strategies with active management,” says the company. In these management contracts it is the owner of the property who enters and obtains benefits from the activity and pays the teacher for operating the establishment.

The manager Azora, founded by Concha Osácar and Fernando Gumuzio, gained experience in the tourism sector thanks to Hispania, which became the largest hotel owner in Spain by number of rooms before being opaque by Blackstone.

The new Azora fund looks to buy hostels and hotels in Mediterranean countries. The objective is to raise around 600 million euros in capital, which together with debt will grant Azora and its investment partners between 1,200 and 1,300 million euros purchasing capacity.

Other operations

Azora has been closing other hotel operations in recent months. Together with Palladium, they created a joint venture in September, with an investment forecast of 500 million euros. In the first transaction they acquired three establishments from Palladium. In addition, with another vehicle in May he bought a portfolio of seven establishments from Med Playa.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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