No Reservations: PE Activity In Hotels & Resorts Reaches New Highs by Joanna Nolasco, PitchBook
If you hadn’t heard of Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group before, you may have by now, what with the flood of headlines surrounding its multibillion-dollar takeover offers for two U.S. hotel & resort businesses. Anbang is reportedly buying Strategic Hotels & Resorts from Blackstone for $6.5 billion, mere months after Blackstone itself acquired the company for about $6 billion. What’s more, Starwood Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: HOT) recently announced an unsolicited acquisition proposal for $76 per share from a consortium that reportedly includes Anbang, J.C. Flowers & Co. and Primavera Capital Group. The bid, which values the company at over $12.8 billion, rivals Starwood’s $12.2 billion merger agreement with Marriott (NASDAQ: MAR) announced in November.
Globally, PE investor activity in the hotels & resorts sector has reached new highs in recent years. PE shops completed 54 deals backing hotel & resort companies in 2015, according to the PitchBook Platform, a 46% increase from the 37 deals closed two years earlier. On the sell side, PE firms closed a decade high of 36 hotel & resort exits to strategic and financial acquirers last year, a 44% increase from the sales closed in 2013.
Here are the most active PE investors in hotel & resort companies since 2009, along with their deal counts (including add-ons):
1. Blackstone (15)
2. KSL Capital Partners (13)
3. Starwood Capital Group (10)
T-4. The Carlyle Group, AJ Capital Partners, Geolo Capital (9)
7. Oaktree Capital Management (8)
