Talks between banks, investors and hotel owners are continuing in a bid to rescue selected tourism assets and infrastructure projects amidst the pandemic.
In fact, according to Business Daily's sources, procedures have been further accelerated, when compared with the prepandemic period, as the lack of liquidity is evident in the tourist market and bookings remain low.
One such deal, which has been revived, concerns the transfer of the hotel businesses of the Kypriotis family on the island of Kos. They include five hotels, in which investment fund HIG Capital has expressed an interest. At an initial phase, the goal is the acquisition of a 55-million-euro loan issued to the Kypriotis group by Eurobank and an additional 50 million euros from Piraeus Bank, in consultation with the borrower.
Talks on this sale resumed in recent weeks, as HIG's goal is to take over the ownership and management of hotels, with a total capacity of 1,500 rooms, as soon as possible. This way HIG will be in a position to proceed with the required improvements in order to reopen on more favorable terms from the summer period of 2021, when market conditions are expected to be much better than what they are today.
Yesterday, the government, through Deputy Finance Minister Apostolos Vesyropoulos, issued a ministerial decision allowing hotel companies to proceed with construction work without VAT, as long as the tax amount exceeds 3,000 euros. The aim is, of course, to facilitate investment decisions until the tourism sector starts to recover.
Sales and auctions
Meanwhile, the market is watching out for the purchase, sale or auction of other hotel units from either banks or their new owners, ie from the foreign funds, which acquired bad loan portfolios backed by real estate. The process of recovering these assets has progressed considerably and the sales process has picked up.
According to an analysis by Arbitrage Real Estate, a total of 676 hotel properties, worth more than 700 million euros, will be available for sale over the next 12 months. Most of them are small, family businesses, however, there are several top assets that are expected to attract significant investment interest.
In regards to upcoming auctions, interest is focused on the hotels of the Kapsis Tourist Complex, which was recently put under special management status (by Grant Thornton) after a decision by the Court of First Instance Heraklion. The company Tourist Complex Kapsis SA controls a five-hotel complex Out of the Blue Capsis Elite Resort in Agia Pelagia, Crete and the City Hotel in Heraklion, Crete.
A few days ago, a significant transaction was completed in the market. Five hotel units in Crete were sold by the Hines-Henderson Park scheme. The capacity of the five units amounts to 1,094 rooms, while the properties stretch over 67,000 sq.m. The final price is estimated to be close to 75 million euros and exceed the 100-million-euro mark, if taking into account investments to ugrade the hotels.
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