Minor Hotels has acquired a 94.1% stake in NH Hotel Group in a deal worth €2,327m.
The agreement, announced at World Travel Market, takes Minor’s group portfolio to 549 hotels and resorts across 53 countries across its brands Anantara, Avani, Oaks, Tivoli, Elewana, and now the NH group.
Over the past 12 months Minor has been buying shares in NH, and last month completed a tender to take overall ownership.
Speaking to Travel Weekly, Michael Marshall, Minor’s chief commercial officer, said Minor had been looking to accelerate its growth over the past two years.
“The opportunity came up and acquisition is the quickest way to fuel growth within a business,” Marshall said. “A couple of years ago we announced our intention to add 50 hotels over a five-year period. With the acquisition of NH we have far exceeded that so we’re now in the midst of doing another five year plan and that will include more growth for us still.
“We will continue to look at more acquisitions and if the right things come up, we’ll take the opportunities as they come.”
Marshall insisted that the brands within the portfolio would complement one another, rather than compete.
“NH has a lot of three and four-star hotels, so this takes us into a new market. The geographical aspect works well for us too. Previously we didn’t have much of a European presence, and NH is huge throughout Europe, so we will benefit from that. Then NH will benefit from our greater reach throughout Asia. There will be many ways we can synergise to grow.”
He said some hotels within the group might be rebranded to move across to a different brand which might be a better fit.
“NH has a luxury collection within it, places in Milan and along the Amalfi Coast, and while nothing is confirmed we will look at whether some of these properties might fit better rebranded as one of the other brands.”
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