Azora, the Madrid-based European private equity real estate manager,announces that it has completed the final close of its latest pan- European hospitality fund, Azora European Hotel & Lodging, F.C.R.(“Azora EH&L” ort he “Fund”) reaching €815 million in total commitments plus additional co-investment capital, implying a36% increase over the original €600million target.
Based on strong demand from institutional investors, Azora raised the Fund’s €750 million hard cap to €815 million. The increase of the hard cap has allowed Azora to accommodate new investors, comprising a large European pension fund, two large insurance companies (based in Europe and the U.S. respectively) and two European family offices.
Taking financial leverage into account, this provides the Fund with an implied total investment capacity of more than €1.8 billion,of which c.€730 million has already been committed, through 4 transactions (including the seed portfolio). These include two flagship hotels in the Algarve region in Portugal for €148 million, through a 20-year sale and management transaction with Minor International (MINT); the acquisition of the Arenas Resort Giverola in Costa Brava (Spain), prior to a €40 million repositioning project; and the luxury 5* Vilalara Thalassa Resort hotel in the Algarveregion. These new acquisitions bring the fund's total portfolio to 4,600 keysin tourism-focused hotels, in both sun and beach and urbanlocations.
The Fund invests in European tourism, a segment with a long-term growth trend and amidst a clear post pandemic recovery scenario. The Fund aims to invest both in traditional beach and mountain destinations, as well as in the main European tourist cities.
Concha Osácar, Founding Partnerat Azora commented:“This Fund is a continuation of our successful strategy in the hotel sector, which began more than ten years ago. Throughout the pandemic we maintained our long-held conviction on the European leisure hotel and resorts market, which has already allowed us to build a significant high- quality portfolio andto position our Fund ahead of competitors,witha strongpipeline of future opportunities.Our continuous focus on the sector has allowed us to become a leading European player in hospitalityand has led us to increase our original target and hard cap to accommodate additional investors ́ demand. For our Fund, the pandemic has created and will continue to createadditional opportunities over and above those originally envisaged.”
Lazard acted as private placement agent for the fundraise and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has acted as legal counsel.
About Azora
Azora Group (hereinafter “Azora”) is a leading independent asset manager based in Spain, which has invested over €4bn of equity since its inception in 2003 and which currently manages c.€3.9bn of AuM (as of Jun-2021).
Its platform, one of the most important in Spain,has more than 200 professionals with great expertise through the whole real estate cycle, including deal sourcing, structuring and investment, new developments and repositioning, asset management and rental and sale of individual assets or portfolios.
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