The RIU Group bought TUI’s stake in 19 hotel units that they had together, including the RIU Palace Madeira, in a global investment of 670 million euros.
The Spanish group announced this Thursday the purchase of the 49% stake owned by TUI, which ensures that RIU Hotels & Resorts will become the owner of 100% of the 19 units, plus two other hotels that are under construction in Mexico and Senegal. Before the purchase, it already held 51% of these units.
The transaction was approved, on May 27, by the TUI Board of Directors, and is valued at a total of 670 million euros. The relationship between the two companies remains strong, with a “strong desire to maintain and strengthen this strategic and commercial relationship in the long term”, the statement reads. TUI continues to hold 50% of the shares in RIUSA II SA, the manager of RIU brand hotels, which the two companies founded in 1993.
The purchase of the shares comes from the pandemic context of falls in the tourism sector, with RIU “continuing to support its long-term strategic partner.” The group adds that “after confirming that the property model has proved to be beneficial in combating the crisis, 100% ownership of these hotels guarantees the necessary agility to face possible paradigm changes in the near future.”
RIU will do the renovation of the RIU Palace Madeira in January of next year, Spanish newspapers reported that RIU Hotels & Resorts had placed the RIU Palace Madeira on the market, alongside other units of the group located in the Canaries and Panama. According to what DIÁRIO managed to determine the sale remains a possibility, but not a certainty.
Alexandra Freitas, director of RIU Palace Madeira, attests that, in the words of the group’s CEO, Luis Riu, “any hotel unit, depending on the offer, can be sold.” It is the director’s understanding that the Madeiran hotel continues to be sold, but “there is news every day.”
What Alexandra Freitas is able to guarantee is that, in January 2022, the hotel “will undergo a renovation, still being owned by RIU.” This reform will consist of a renovation of the hotel unit, without altering its structures. Without being able to advance the investment that the work implies, he explains that it will be “a washing of the hotel’s image.”