The B&B Hotel Lisboa Aeroporto was financed by B&B Hotels and built by the Casais Group to sell and rent it simultaneously to a real estate fund through a long-term guaranteed lease.
With the sale of the B&B Hotel Lisboa Aeroporto, the group has now unloaded 100% of its real estate assets in Portugal, consolidating its ‘asset light’ business model on the Iberian Peninsula, which the company considers “fundamental to maintaining its strong growth rates and consolidating its position as a tenant for the hotel assets of family offices and all types of real estate funds,” the company stated.
B&B Hotels already has 37 hotels operating in Spain and five in Portugal, all of them on long-term leases. This way, the hotel group can guarantee the development of new projects in close collaboration with funds specialised in real estate investments.
According to Lucía Méndez-Bonito, CEO of the company in Spain and Portugal: “our strategy for 2021 is to continue to expand our network of hotels under long-term guaranteed lease and, therefore, to expand our innovative business model.” “We currently have a large number of projects underway, and we continue to look for opportunities to continue our sustained growth in Portugal, a key market for our expansion, with the aim of continuing to be a leader in budget hotels,” Ms Méndez-Bonito added.
Abiud de Santiago, the CFO of B&B Hotels in Spain and Portugal, stated that “the success of the B&B Hotel Lisboa Aeroporto’s Sale & Leaseback operation gives the group the necessary financial muscle to carry out its ambitious development plan, as well as consolidating [our] asset-light operational model.”
Translation: Richard Turner
