Thai hotel group Minor International (MINT) has announced it will be acquiring the eight hotels remaining in the former Espírito Santo Tivoli Hotel and Resorts chain “as part of an aggressive plan to expand overseas”.
For now, amounts involved are being kept under wraps. MINT’s purchase of six Tivoli hotels in January cost the company €168 million, but this latest buy-out could well reach a lot less.
Sol news website writing last month hinted that total sums involved may not exceed €82.5 million as the chain remains in serious debt (losses of €13 million declared in 2014), with seizures in place as a result of the BES fraud and corruption investigation.
According to Reuters news agency, MINT’s vice-president for strategic planning, Chaiyapat Paitoon, announced the latest purchase during a quarterly earnings presentation on Monday.
Owners of Burger King and Dairy Queen outlets across Asia, MINT had already announced this year that it was aiming to own 190 hotels by 2019. This far, it owns 133.
The group’s purchase in January of six Tivoli hotels – four in Portugal and two in Brazil – was described as “one of the biggest ever deals in the Portuguese hotel sector” and seen as a sign that foreign investors were gaining confidence in Portugal’s economy.
It was also the first step towards recovery for a brand that had all but collapsed financially when Rioforte – the Espírito Santo company that owned it – imploded along with the rest of the banking empire last summer.
Up until now, government-backed PER funding has been keeping the eight hotels left out of Minor’s January buy-up up and running. Again, figures on exactly how much this has been costing have not been revealed.
The hotels involved have also not yet been identified but are certain to include Tivoli Jardim (Lisbon), Sintra, Coimbra, Victoria (Monserrate, near Sintra) and Lagos. Of the four purchased in January, three were in the Algarve: the Tivoli Carvoeiro, Tivoli Marina de Vilamoura and Tivoli Marina de Portimão.
Aside from this MINT is known to have signed a promissory contract for the purchase of an investment company holding the Hotel Tivoli Gare do Oriente in Lisbon.
