Whitbread Acquires 2000 Rooms For Premier Inn
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Whitbread Acquires 2000 Rooms For Premier Inn
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Category: Europe -
This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2007-09-27
Whitbread PLC has today announced the purchase of six hotels (770 rooms) currently trading in the UK under the Tulip Inn and Golden Tulip brands and a secured pipeline of nine further sites (1300 rooms) for £44m. The pipeline hotels are planned to open in the next two years.
The six hotels currently trading had an EBITDA of £2.3m in the last financial year and average occupancy of 70%.
The 15 leasehold hotels will be converted to the Premier Inn brand at a cost of £9m. The current franchise arrangements with Golden Tulip Worldwide have been terminated and the six open hotels will be rebranded by the year-end. Taking account of the costs of integration it is anticipated that the transaction will be marginally dilutive in the current financial year.
The hotels have been purchased through the acquisition of Golden Tulip (UK) Limited and Pilot Hotels Limited from funds managed by Graphite Capital and management shareholders. The consideration, which included the discharge of existing debt, was paid in cash on completion.
Alan Parker CEO of Whitbread said: “I am pleased that we are able to buy these modern and well-located hotels for Premier Inn, the UK’s largest and fastest growing hotel business. Once rebranded and integrated into our Premier Inn portfolio, our focus will be on occupancy and securing further sites in the pipeline over and above these 15 hotels. We will now have our first Premier Inn in the Republic of Ireland and will be looking for other opportunities in that country. There is clearly significant growth potential through conversions such as this and, coupled with our aggressive organic pipeline, we are well on track to reach our target of 45,000 rooms in the UK by 2010.”
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