Blackstone, owner of Hotel Investment Partners (HIP) and based in Las Palmas, owner of the former IFA hotels of Lopesan (now Ábora), Dunas (former Promotafe), Barceló Margaritas, among other assets in the south of Gran Canaria, has closed the purchase of financing for 310 million euros for new operations. Despite the difficult conditions in the European real estate markets, the subsidiary of the American management company Blackstone has closed one of the most important refinancing agreements of the year so far, obtaining 680 million euros of debt for a portfolio of 15 "Spanish" hotels. ", that is, those located in the Canary Islands have not been indicated.
The portfolio that Blackstone refinanced was one of its first purchases in the Canary Islands hotel market. In October 2017, it bought the hotel finance company Hotel Investment Partners from the Banco Sabadell group (where the Lopesan IFAs were located) for around 630,7 million euros. The deal, which was made through its Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe V fund, provided the firm with 14 high-end hotels containing 3.700 rooms located in mainland Spain and the Canary Islands.
In a statement, a Blackstone spokesperson said: “Our hotel investments in southern Europe continue to perform well as fundamentals remain strong.” The five-year deal comprises €370 million of senior debt and a €310 million mezzanine loan. The senior portion of the refinancing was underwritten by US bank Morgan Stanley and French lender Credit Agricole CIB. Morgan Stanley underwrote two-thirds of the senior loan and CACIB underwrote the remainder. Austrian bank BAWAG participated in the loan at origin, purchasing a significant syndicated portion with the backing of LaSalle Investment.
Blackstone began its search for new financing during 2022, to replace acquisition debt provided by Swiss bank Credit Suisse, now part of UBS, and U.S. lender Citi in 2017, which was due this year. The manager initially sought around 500 million euros of debt. In addition to the €680 million, lenders have collectively made available an element of capital expenditure funding, which is understood to represent less than 5 per cent of the total lending volume.
