MADRID, 8 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Minor International has announced its intention to acquire shares of NH Hotel Group on the Madrid Stock Exchange for a period of 30 days as part of the Thai group’s long-term strategy to create a “positive impact” for its shareholders. In his opinion, this operation “contributes to increasing the liquidity of NH shares in the market during the purchase period.”
Minor, which owns 94.132% of NH’s outstanding shares, has now decided to purchase additional shares on the market at a price of no more than €4.50 per share for a period of thirty (30) days. The company assures, in a statement on its website, that “it has no intention of buying more NH shares in the market from then on.” It thus opens the way to a possible exclusion takeover bid.
The company’s listing was suspended around noon this Monday on the Madrid Stock Exchange by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) “with immediate effect”, while “relevant information” was disseminated. At that time, the company’s shares were trading at a price of 3.62 euros, with a rise of 0.97%.
The Thai company wants to gain more weight in the listed company and get shares at a price that would not exceed 4.5 euros per share. A price that, if confirmed, would mean a premium of 24.3% over the current share price.
“Our decision to acquire additional shares reflects our confidence in NH’s ability to continue generating value in synergies in the near future,” said the group’s CEO, Dillip Rajakarier.
In his opinion, NH is a “solid brand” with an “experienced management team” that has demonstrated a “solid” financial record before and after the pandemic, with a “significant” recovery of its business and an expected portfolio of openings for the next few years “very important”.
“We believe that NH has enormous potential to drive further growth, especially when the strengths of NH and the rest of Minor are combined,” said the manager.
NH Hotel Group, a subsidiary of Minor Hotels, is one of the most important urban hotel companies in Europe and America, where it operates more than 350 hotels.
Since 2019, the company led by Ramón Aragonés has been working together with Minor Hotels in the integration of their commercial hotel brands under the same corporate umbrella, with a presence in more than 50 countries around the world. Together they have a portfolio of more than 500 hotels operated under eight brands: Anantara, Avani, Elewana, Oaks, NH Hotels, NH Collection, nhow and Tivoli.
This news came out precisely on the same day that the hotel company announced that in the first quarter of the year it had increased its total revenue to 407 million euros, 74.2% more than in 2022. Despite the fact that it first year is “the weakest” the company has closed the quarter with losses of 36 million euros, which represents an improvement of 40.9 million euros compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
Currently the group’s liquidity is greater than 480 million euros, after the voluntary repayment last January of the remaining 50 million of the ICO loan for an amount of 250 million received in the pandemic. The net financial debt amounts to 340 million euros, which represents an increase of 33 million euros.
The Thai hotel giant was already the main shareholder of NH after the acquisition of more than 90% of the shares of the NH Hotel Group was completed in October 2018 through a Takeover Bid (OPA). An operation that allowed it to increase its portfolio to 522 hotels and resorts in 53 countries in the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Europe, South America, Africa and the Indian Ocean.
Minor entered the capital of NH in 2013 after acquiring a package of shares representing 29.5%. In mid-2018 it rose to 46% and just a few months later it launched a takeover bid (takeover bid) with which it managed to control 94.1%.
The takeover bid launched five years ago by Minor, through MHG Continental Holding, valued NH at around 2,500 million euros at a rate of 6.3 euros per title minus the dividend (0.10 euros) paid by the chain.
Just a couple of months ago, the debut of NH in Thailand was announced by Minor Hotels with a resort in the city of Chiang Mai, one of the most important cities in the north of the country. The establishment, located on the banks of the Mae Ping River, will be the first NH Collection hotel in Asia-Pacific and will open in the first quarter of 2023.
The recovery of international tourism that the Spanish tourism sector experienced during 2022 returned the profits to the hotel chain, which had not registered a positive result since 2019, the last year of pre-pandemic normality.
Last February the company presented very favorable results at the end of the year with a net profit of 100 million euros in a year driven by the recovery in which revenues stood at 1,759 million euros, exceeding by 2, 4% the figure for 2019.
The strong recovery of revenues and gross operating profit (Ebitda) allowed NH to reach a recurring net profit of 76 million euros in 2022, the first positive annual result since 2019.
NH reached total revenues of 1,759 million euros in 2022, compared to the 834 million registered in 2021 and 2.4% (41 million) above the 1,718 million achieved in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.
The CEO of NH Hotel Group, Ramón Aragonés, assured that this year 2023 would be very positive for the hotel company, which, despite the significant increase in costs suffered, since “demand continues to be very strong”.
