Vienna International Hotelmanagement AG will be fully acquired by Vienna House Capital, the Austrian subsidiary of Thailand’s U City PCL, a commercial property company.
Along with the acquisition of the company, which had rebranded itself Vienna House last year, Vienna House Capital agreed to purchase seven European hotel properties and an operating company owned by Warimpex and partly owned by UBM. The hotels are already being managed by Vienna House.
The acquisition is expected to be final this summer. Purchase prices were not disclosed.
U City is a listed Thai commercial property company. In September 2016, U City made its first strategic step into Europe through its acquisition of a prime office building in London. The largest shareholder of U City with 35.64 percent is BTS Group (BTSG), one of Thailand’s top publicly listed companies with a market capitalisation of EUR 2.7bn and four business units: mass transit (Skytrain), media, real estate and services. Both companies are headquartered in Bangkok and own hotels in Thailand. “This is an acquisition with synergy, which expands our Asian hotel portfolio with a pan-European one and exposure to both established and fast-growing markets in the continent,” said Piyaporn Phanachet, CEO of U City.
“We have found exactly the strategic partner we were looking for: A strong shareholder who I have known for some time, who shares our vision of the hotel business and who supports our economic goals,” said Rupert Simoner, CEO of Vienna House. “In this way, we remain one of the last independent European hotel companies – a fact we are very proud of – and can focus on reaching our growth targets in brand management, company positioning and portfolio expansion. Vienna House now owns around half of its current portfolio of 34 hotels – a step that is very important to me from an entrepreneurial point of view.”
The existing lease and management contracts with Vienna House remain valid without change.