Principal Hotels secondary MBO

It’s been a busy year so far for Nomura’s Principal Finance group, which also bought the Principal Hotels chain for GBP255 million at the end of January. The transaction was in the form of a secondary buyout since Nomura bought the group from a consortium of private equity investors, which was led by Bridgepoint Capital and PPM Ventures. Bridgepoint and PPM Ventures bought Principal Hotels in March 1994 for GBP68 million. Over the time Bridgepoint and PPM Ventures invested in Principal Hotels it undertook a disposal programme, made selective acquisitions and received further capital investment.

Principal Hotels owns 17 hotels in total, 14 of these are in the UK, one is in Copenhagen and two are in Amsterdam. Principal Hotels is a four star hotelier.

Juergen Bartels, previously chief executive of Starwood Hotels, will become executive chairman of Principal Hotels and the managing director, Tony Troy, will continue in that capacity.

“Principal Hotels is an excellent chain of hotels in the growing business and conference market. It ha a respected management team, which is now joined by Juergen Bartels who is recognised as one f the most successful hoteliers in the world.”