The transaction is worth some €20 million, according to a Warimpex Manager, Daniel Folian. He added that the takeover is to be finalized in one month and that Warimpex will provide its own management for the Golden Tulip.
"We decided it is better to begin investing in the Romanian hotel sector with the acquisition of a hotel, rather than building one," he said. The company plans to buy more hotels on the local market.
Warimpex Finanz- und Beteiligungs was founded in 1982, and has since invested some €850 million in 22 hotels, with a total of 5,500 rooms.
The company posted net sales worth €14.5 million in the first quarter of 2007. The developer owns three, four and five-star hotels in Poland and the Czech Republic. Golden Tulip is their first investment in Romania.
The hotel is the only unit targeting the international business segment close to Bucharest's international Henri Coanda Airport. It was opened in 2001, under the name Sky Gate, becoming a Golden Tulip franchise in 2005.
The hotel has 108 rooms and 3,000 sqm of office space. The Golden Tulip chain includes five hotels in Romania.
More strategic investors could withdraw from the hotel industry. "I was expecting new sales on the market. It was time for companies not specializing in hotel operation to make room for ones who know this business," said General Manager of the Phoenicia hotel, Dinel Saizu.
Phoenicia is the largest four-star hotel in Bucharest, with 348 rooms. He added that the Phoenicia is also for sale, "for the right price."
Sales
This is the second Golden Tulip hotel to be sold, following that close to Victoria Square. Sources on the market say another one of the hotels in the chain, the Golden Tulip Times, close to Muncii Square, is for sale.
