Banco Santander takes over 38.2% of three Meliá hotels

2024-04-12 15:34:09

Santander Bankthrough its investment vehicle Moon GC&P Investments, has acquired a 38.2% stake in the share capital of a subsidiary company of Meliá Hotels International for 300 million euros.

This operation was already announced on February 19, with the purpose of being carried out this Thursday, April 11 through the creation of new type B shares, of a preferential nature.

The new joint subsidiary of Banco Santander and Meliá will own three hotels, two in Spain and one in the United Kingdom. These are specifically Me London (London), Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora (Tenerife), and Meliá Cala Galdana (Menorca). These hotels will continue to be operated by companies of the Meliá Group.

The Moon GC&P Investments operation appeared under the non-controlling interests heading in the consolidated balance sheet of Grupo Meliá, which presented its annual results on February 29.

Meliá has highlighted that the entry of Santander Bank in the share capital of this joint subsidiary has had an excellent reception in the market, given “the guarantee of the chosen partner and the boost it will provide for the group’s strategic priority of strengthening its balance sheet.”

In the words of Ángel Luis Rodríguez, financial director of the hotel company, «With the completion of this transaction we take another step in an innovative line of collaboration and synergies between Meliá and a leading financial entity such as Banco Santander, which is joining us as a partner. preferential in the intense phase of consolidation and growth that we face, helping, along with the recovery of the business, to leave behind the worst impacts of the pandemic.”

This operation is included in the current asset sale plan that Gabriel Escarrer’s hotel company is carrying out.

The acquisition was made through the investment and corporate banking area of ​​Banco Santander, through one of the products that the entity chaired by Ana Botín offers to help large companies.

On this occasion, Santander Bank has offered Meliá a capital injection as ‘preferential equity’ in exchange for taking a stake in these three hotels.

Banco Santander thus continues to offer financial support to the tourism sector which, according to Meliá, is in “a moment of strong recovery with very good future prospects after the crisis caused by the pandemic.”