Marriott to Acquire Elegant Hotels Group

Crystal Cove. Image courtesy of Elegant Hotels Group

Marriott International will acquire the Barbados-based Elegant Hotels Group for approximately $130.1 million. The price was calculated from Elegant’s enterprise value of $199 million and a total net debt of $68.9 million, based on its latest half-year report that ended in March. Elegant’s shareholders would receive 110 pence a share, or approximately $1.42.

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The Barbados luxury brand owns and operates seven hotels and a beachfront restaurant called Daphne’s. Six of their seven properties are located along the west coast of the Caribbean island, commonly referred to as the Platinum Coast due to its white sand beaches. The collection includes:

• The 96-key Colony Club
• The 34-suite boutique The House
• The 104-key The Tamarind
• The 88-key Crystal Cove
• The 161-key Turtle Beach
• The 70-key Waves Hotel & Spa

The majority of Elegant’s guestrooms are in all-inclusive resorts. The freehold properties span 23 acres and include a total beachfront of 2,600 feet. Marriott is planning to renovate the Elegant hotels and operate them all as all-inclusive resorts under a Marriott brand once the acquisition goes through. The hotel giant will also market the Barbados portfolio for sale with the condition of Marriott continuing to manage the hotels.

Marriott’s global expansion

According to Arne Sorenson, president & CEO of Marriott, there’s currently strong and growing demand for all-inclusive properties and the Elegant Hotels acquisition helped jumpstart the company’s all-inclusive expansion.

In August, Marriott launched an expansion plan to offer more all-inclusive hotels throughout the world’s more popular vacation spots. Their announcement in the summer included new contracts set to bring about five new properties, a 650-key resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, to open in 2022 and four resorts totalling 1,440 keys in Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit with expected openings between 2023 and 2025.

The momentum stems from a strong year in 2017, where Marriott signed a record 55,000 guest rooms internationally. Throughout 2017, the hotel giant opened more than 140 hotels and about 30,000 guest rooms outside North America, on top of signed contracts in the pipeline. Currently, Marriott’s portfolio includes 5,229 properties in North America as well as 1,871 hotels in other countries.