With an eye on IPO
Motel One founder buys back hotel chain
April 9, 2024, 7:33 p.m
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Business is booming at the Motel One hotel chain. Founder Dieter Müller wants to take the company public soon. He no longer needs the financial investor Proprium Capital Partners for this. The company’s stake will be bought back for billions.
The Munich hotel chain Motel One is now solely owned by the investor group around company founder Dieter Müller. Motel One announced that One Hotels & Resorts GmbH had bought back the 35 percent stake of the financial investor Proprium Capital Partners for 1.25 billion euros. Motel One was therefore valued at 4.1 billion euros.
Müller wants to take the hotel business public in the medium term; he recently spoke of an IPO within two to three years. The hotel properties were spun off as part of Proprium’s exit, the statement said. For Proprium, the commitment more than paid off. The former subsidiary of the investment bank Morgan Stanley, which specializes in real estate financing, said it acquired Motel One in 2007 with 65 million euros as part of a capital increase.
The “Financial Times” reported that Proprium had increased its stake, including dividends, more than twenty-fold. The hotel group has expanded significantly in recent years. Today it includes 94 hotels with more than 26,000 rooms in 13 countries. Motel One focuses primarily on business travelers and city tourists who do not need facilities such as restaurants and swimming pools.
In 2023, Motel One increased sales by a third to a record value of 852 million euros, and the operating result (Ebitda) grew by 64 percent to 281 million euros. The occupancy rate was 72 percent. Motel One expects income to continue to rise in the current year – partly because of the European Football Championship in Germany. However, the beginning of the year was negatively influenced “by the extensive strikes in rail and air traffic in Germany”. Seven hotels with around 1,800 rooms are to be opened. In total, Motel One has secured 117 hotels with a good 32,000 rooms in 56 cities.