Azora readies for boom with €148m Algarve hotels deal

Madrid-based investment manager Azora has acquired two five-star hotels in Portugal’s Algarve in a €148 million sale-and-manageback transaction with hotel and restaurant group Minor International (MINT).

The two hotels, which comprise the Tivoli Marina Vilamoura resort and the Tivoli Carvoeiro resort, have been acquired on behalf of the Azora European Hotel and Lodging Fund.

The two hotels will be operated by NH Hotel Group under the Tivoli brand for an initial term of 20 years, with options to extend for a further 10 years — MINT acquired the NH Hotel Group for €2.3 billion in October 2018.

The deal means that Azora has now committed over €680 million (€305 million of equity) on behalf of the Fund which achieved a €680 million first close in summer 2020. It also follows Azora’s acquisition of the 213 apartment-hotel complex Giverola Resort on Spain’s Costa Brava, in April 2021. The Fund was launched in July 2020 with a seed portfolio of ten hotel assets and four urban hostel assets across Europe.

Vilamoura now includes Algarve’s largest congress centre

Tivoli Vilamoura resort, located on Vilamoura’s marina, has 383 rooms and suites and facilities include seven restaurants and bars, a spa, and sports and leisure facilities. Over the past five years €12 million has been spent on capex within the hotel and a new congress centre, which is the largest in the Algarve, was built in 2018.

Tivoli Carvoeiro Algarve Resort has 248 rooms and suites, and facilities include five restaurants, the Tivoli spa and a large event space. A €15 million, four- year, phased remodelling has recently been completed.

Concha Osácar, one of Azora’s Founding Partners said that it is the firm’s conviction that “there will be a strong post-pandemic recovery in the European hotels and leisure sector, with significant pent-up demand following long periods of lockdowns and restrictions, particularly in the sun and beach markets.”