Spanish investors negotiate the buy of NH Bucharest for euro18 mln

Among companies negotiating the purchase of the business are Spanish tour operators Transrutas and Mundicolor, who plan to enter the Romanian market, according to market sources for Business Standard. Representatives of the tour operators were not available for comment before the closing of the edition. NH Bucharest is owned by Cantabria, a company with three Spanish shareholders - one company, Promociones Y Gestiones Urbanisticas Lanzarote (89.9 percent), and two individuals, Javier Martinez Garzon (10 percent) and Eduardo Abascal Zorilla (some 1 percent). 

Spanish companies are not the only ones planning to purchase the hotel. “To date, a Romanian hotel chain, several Israeli investors, and a U.S.-based hotel chain have shown interest in buying NH,” according to Catalin Mihalache, shareholder of NH’s exclusive sale agent, real estate agency Imobiliar Expert Grup. Mihalache added that Cantabria’s shareholders decided to sell the hotel because they plan to focus on developing a tourism area in the Danube Delta, where they own or lease several hundred hectares. NH Bucharest’s General Manager, Elena Dumitrescu, has confirmed that the hotel is for sale, but declined to provide further details. She added a second NH unit in Romania, located in Timisoara, is not for sale. 

Revenues of the 78-room hotel exceeded €1 mln in the first half of 2007. According to data published by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the company registered a turnover of some €1.8 mln in 2006, 500 percent higher year-on-year. Cantabria’s net profits amounted to €700,000 million in 2006, up from €300,000 in losses in 2005. 

NH Hoteles is one of the largest Spanish hotel chains, operating under franchise or management contracts. The Bucharest-based hotel is operating under management contract. NH Hoteles operates 337 hotels worldwide, with a total of 49,157 rooms. The hotel chain is listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange. Other three-star hotels operating in Romania are Best Western, Accor (through its Ibis brand), and TH Hotels. The  hotel market is booming, with more than €500 mln in investments.