The Blackstone group chooses Sicily and Sardinia to invest in the hotel sector in Italy. The subsidiary of the American group Hotel Investment Partners (Hip), owner of large-scale resorts in Southern Europe, has in fact signed a strategic agreement with Mangia’s, Resort by the Sea, to acquire six properties to be developed. This is an important step in the strategy of the company, present in the Mediterranean basin but still absent from the Italian market.
“This acquisition contributes to the expansion of Hip’s presence in southern Europe” underlines Alejandro Hernández-Puértolas, founder and CEO of Hip.
The property of three hotels located in Sardinia – Cala Blu, Marmorata and Agrustos – and three in Sicily – Brucoli, Costanza and Pollina then changed hands. However, management remains in the hands of the Mangia family.
Segment in clear growth
As part of the transaction – whose advisor was the investment bank Lazard – investments were also decided for a value of approximately € 85 million which will be made over the next few years to enhance and reposition the properties of the joint venture. And it is precisely the category of assets to be valued that today attracts investors to the Italian hotel world, so much so that according to the forecasts of the major consulting networks, volumes at the end of the year in the segment will reach 1.5 billion euros. A figure in clear growth compared to a 2020 to be forgotten.
Hip, which thus sets foot in Italy to stay, was founded in 2015 by Alejandro Hernández-Puértolas and Banco Sabadell and was acquired by Blackstone in 2017. The company now has 65 hotels for a total of 20 thousand rooms in Spain, Greece and Portugal. With this latest acquisition, the portfolio will expand to 71 hotels and over 21,000 rooms.