Whitbread PLC Acquisition in Germany (1595G)
28 February 2018 - 6:01PM
UK Regulatory
TIDMWTB
RNS Number : 1595G
Whitbread PLC
28 February 2018
Acquisition in Germany
28 February 2018
Whitbread announces a significant acquisition of a portfolio of
19 hotels in Germany, an important step in scaling its business
internationally
Whitbread announces today the acquisition of a portfolio of 19
hotels in Germany, from Foremost Hospitality Group GmbH, for an
undisclosed sum. This acquisition will give Premier Inn substantial
presence in the German hotel market, increasing the total committed
network pipeline to 31 hotels with over 5,700 rooms across 15 key
cities that are all expected to be open by the end of 2020. This
acquisition is an important step in accelerating Whitbread's
existing international strategy and in replicating Premier Inn UK's
success and network scale in this key strategic market. Whitbread
will continue to explore options to further accelerate growth in
Germany, through a mix of freehold property developments, leasehold
sites and acquisitions of small existing hotel portfolios.
Alison Brittain, CEO of Whitbread commented; "One of our three
key strategic priorities is to focus on building strong and
sustainable growth in key international markets. Today's
announcement marks the next stage in our ambitious growth plan for
the Premier Inn brand in Germany. We believe Germany has many of
the structural growth drivers that have underpinned the success of
Premier Inn in the UK and that Germany is a market that will
deliver strong returns in the future.
This acquisition mirrors the strategic opportunity that we
identified with Costa in China, where we recently bought out
Costa's South China joint venture partner. Whitbread's strong
businesses still have considerable growth opportunities in the UK,
however, these two transactions and our continued investment in
these new markets, gives us confidence in our ability to build
international businesses of scale in both Germany and China, that
will underpin our growth for decades to come."
The acquisition in Germany includes 13 leasehold hotels
(comprising 2,140 rooms), which are already open and trading, and
six committed pipeline leasehold hotels (comprising around 970
rooms), the majority of which will open over the next two years.
The hotels are all in proven prime locations, are of high quality
and can be readily rebranded to Premier Inn. The transaction and
consideration are conditional upon obtaining consent from landlords
to rebrand the hotels and upon the termination of the franchise
agreements with the current franchisor. This could take up to two
years for the 13 trading hotels. The hotels being acquired will
continue trading under their current brand, in advance of being
refurbished in to the Premier Inn brand. The acquisition is
expected to be earnings enhancing the year after completion.
Premier Inn currently has one hotel open in Frankfurt and a
further eleven hotels in its committed pipeline across key cities
in Germany, having recently secured an additional organic
development in Munich for 216 bedrooms. The German hotel market is
35% larger than the UK and similar to the UK ten years ago, it is
experiencing a structural shift from independent hotels to branded
hotels. The branded budget hotel sector is the fastest beneficiary
of this shift, but still only represents a 6% market share,
compared to 24% in the UK. With only moderate growth expected from
other brands, Premier Inn's strong quality and value credentials
provide a long-term opportunity to establish a major hotel brand
and develop a successful business of scale in this attractive
market.
German hotel portfolio overview
Organic To be acquired Total
========== ================= ================= =================
Open and 1 hotels (210 13 hotels (2,140 14 hotels (2,350
trading rooms) rooms) rooms)
Committed 11 hotels (2,400 6 hotels (970 17 hotels (3,370
pipeline rooms) rooms) rooms)
========== ================= ================= =================
Total 12 hotels (2,610 19 hotels (3,110 31 hotels (5,720
rooms) rooms) rooms)
========== ================= ================= =================
This announcement contains inside information.
For more information please contact:
Investor queries
Matt Johnson, Whitbread PLC | matt.johnson@whitbread.com | +44
(0) 7848 146 761
Ann Hyams, Whitbread PLC | ann.hyams@whitbread.com | +44 (0)
7796 709 087
Matt Holman, Whitbread PLC | matt.holman@whitbread.com | +44 (0)
7712 243 322
Media queries
Anna Glover, Whitbread PLC | +44 (0) 7768 917 651
David Allchurch, Tulchan Communications | +44 (0) 20 7353
4200
Footnotes and definitions are contained at the end of this
statement.
For photographs and video please visit our media library on
www.whitbreadimages.co.uk.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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