Chatham Partners Advises on Large Transaction in the Hotel Sector

Chatham Partners has advised the Spanish RIU Group on the acquisition, from TUI Group, of a minority stake (49%) in RIU Hotels, S.A. which in turn owns a real estate portfolio of 21 hotels. The acquirer is the RIU-owned Saranja, S.L. which now will be the sole owner of that portfolio; pursuant to the pertinent ad hoc notice, as published by TUI AG (Link), the Enterprise value totals approx. EUR 1.5 billion, while the purchase price amounts to around EUR 670 million (incl. earn-out).

The transaction is part of the debt reduction and restructuring efforts undertaken by TUI. RIU, one of the largest Spanish hotel groups, will in turn consolidate its ownership of the real estate holding RIU Hotels, S.A.

For Chatham Partners, inter alia, Dr. Marco Núñez Müller, Dr. Sebastian Kamm (Partners), Miriam le Bell (Counsel) and Dr. Vincent Nossek (Associate) were advising. Additional insolvency law input was provided by MHL – Möhrle Happ Luther (Sebastian Siepmann, Partner). The Spanish advisors of RIU included Monlex Abogados (José Antonio Fernández de Alarcón Roca, Partner) and Elías Gutiérrez Rodríguez (Head of the RIU Legal Dptm.). TUI was advised by Allen & Overy (inter alia, Dr. Helge Schäfer and Dr. Sven Prüfer, Partners; Dr. Jonas Wittgens, Counsel). Dr. Marco Núñez Müller had advised RIU already in 2004 when RIU acquired a large stake in TUI AG, as well as in several related transactions since.