Henderson Park Acquires Amaris Hotel Platform to Create Klarent Hospitality
Main Photo: Dublin Custom House, which was converted to a Hilton Garden Inn, as one of the hotels in this deal
Date: December 2021
Name: Klarent Hospitality – the new brand formed from the deal
Locations: Europe, including France, Greece, Ireland, Spain and the UK
Number of Keys: 9,300 – Henderson Park
Seller: LRC Group
Buyer: Henderson Park
Henderson Park, the private equity real estate firm headquartered in London, announces that it has acquired the business and hotel management platform of Amaris Hospitality from LRC Group and simultaneously launched a new dedicated hotel and asset management platform called Klarent Hospitality. The acquisition follows Henderson Park’s recent acquisition of a 2,424 key portfolio of 12 high-quality Hilton-branded hotels, managed by Amaris Hospitality, which closed in November. The Amaris Hospitality name and brand does not form part of the acquisition and will continue to be owned by LRC Group.
Klarent Hospitality will be led by the existing Amaris management team under Peter Stack and John Brennan, the current chief executive and chairman, respectively. All Amaris Hospitality employees will transition to Klarent Hospitality and continue in their current roles, allowing for a seamless transition for personnel and suppliers, as well as uninterrupted customer service. The launch of Klarent Hospitality will therefore have no impact on the employees, suppliers, or guests of the 30 hotels in the Klarent Hospitality portfolio, where it will be business as usual.
The hospitality sector remains one of Henderson Park’s conviction asset classes, having made a number of significant acquisitions, including several landmark hotels across Europe, in the last few years. Henderson Park’s portfolio now comprises c. 9,300 rooms across the UK, as well as Greece, France, Ireland and Spain.
John Brennan and Peter Stack, who have over 70 years’ combined experience in the hospitality sector, led the creation of Amaris Hospitality in 2015, which consolidated nearly 100 hotels in the UK and Ireland. After a £100 million capital expenditure programme, 22 hotel rebrands, significant enhancements to product and customer experiences, and a programme to drive superior operational performance, growing investor demand triggered the sale of the Jurys Inn hotel group to Pandox in 2017. Subsequently LRC acquired the Amaris Hospitality business and its remaining hotel assets in 2018.
Nick Weber, Founding Partner of Henderson Park, said: “The acquisition of the Amaris business allows us to launch at scale our own dedicated hotel operating platform, Klarent Hospitality. This new business will be integral to helping us drive further value for our investors from our hospitality assets. We have long admired the Amaris Hospitality business model and track record, as well as the quality and expertise of its team. We now look forward to working with John, Peter and the Klarent team to capitalise on the opportunities emerging in the hospitality sector in the near-term, as well as from the wider post-pandemic recovery in the coming years.”
John Brennan, Chairman of Klarent Hospitality, said: “Henderson Park has a long history of successful investment in the hospitality sector and this transaction, with the creation of Klarent Hospitality, provides Nick and his team with a proven platform to further strengthen their existing hospitality market expertise. Our deep sectoral knowledge and experience of transforming, rebranding and managing hotels is highly complementary to Henderson Park’s investment and asset management expertise within the sector. We look forward to partnering with Nick Weber and his team to maximise future opportunities within the hospitality industry.”
Price: Undisclosed
THPT Comment: Wow, what a way to end the year! Henderson Park, as big a real-estate player as they are, couldn’t spell the word hotel until they got involved some years back…2010 or so, when ironically for this deal, they bought and sold Jury’s Inn…and now are a major player in the European hotel scene.
First Seen: Henderson Park press release
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