TUI Group, a multinational travel and tourism company headquartered in Hanover, Germany, completed the sale of the Hotelbeds Group, the self-described "world's bedbank." The transaction, which was first announced in April 2016, resulted in a total cash consideration of 1.19 billion euros to British investor Cinven Capital Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
“With the successful completion of the disposal, we are consistently continuing our strategy,” said Fritz Joussen, CEO of the TUI Group. “TUI covers the whole tourism value chain, however, our investments focus on our own products that differentiate us from our competition. These are primarily hotel and cruise businesses. We will use the proceeds to continue our growth roadmap for our hotel and cruise portfolio and further strengthen our balance sheet.”
In addition, the TUI Group revealed the expansion of its hotel portfolio with the TUI Blue Hotel in Croatia, the TUI Blue Jadran. The first two TUI Blue hotels opened in Turkey in May this year, but new properties are planned to open as the year continues with developments in Tenerife (November 2016), Austria (November 2016), Germany (December 2016) and Italy (Spring 2017).
“The hotel business is a key element of TUI’s growth strategy. By opening this additional new hotel, we have shown that we are consistently implementing our goals and continue to expand our unique offering for our guests,” said Thomas Pietzka, head of TUI Hotels & Resorts.
The new property is located in a bay on the Makarska Riviera, a coastal section of the Croatian Riviera in Dalmatia. The hotel is located directly on a beach and will have 161 guestrooms with eleven swim-up suites, four bars and three restaurants.