Hyatt Acquires Apple Leisure Group For $2.7B In Cash

On Sunday, Hyatt made a surprise announcement about buying an Apple Leisure Group for $2.7 from two Private Equity Firms.

Apple Leisure Group is a collection of 100 or so leisure hotels, of which many are all-inclusive, and they also handle the travel package business for Southwest and United Airlines.

You can access World of Hyatt here.

Apple Vacation Brands:

The leading hotel brands are Secrets, Dreams, and Breathless Resorts & Spa. The purchase also includes a Spanish brand called Alua that has hotels in Spain and Greece.

There are travel agency/distribution brands of CheapCaribbean, Apple Vacations, and Funjet Vacation. Apple Leisure also handles Southwest and United Vacations.

Acquired hotel brands:

Secrets

Dreams

Breathless

Zoetry

Alua

Sunscape

Hyatt’s current brands:

Apple Leisure Group History

Here’s the release by Hyatt:

Hyatt to Acquire Apple Leisure Group, Expanding Global Brand Presence in Luxury Leisure Travel

Acquisition accelerates asset-light transformation; launches Hyatt’s commitment to sell additional $2 billion of hotel assets by the end of 2024; Doubles Hyatt’s global resorts footprint with accretive net rooms growth over the coming years with global expansion of AMR Collection™ brands like Secrets®, Dreams® and Zoëtry®; Hyatt to Discuss Transaction on Webcast Scheduled for Monday, August 16 at 7:30 a.m. CDT

CHICAGO (August 15, 2021) – Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) today announced that Hyatt has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Apple Leisure Group (ALG), a leading luxury resort-management services, travel and hospitality group, from affiliates of each of KKR and KSL Capital Partners, LLC for $2.7 billion in cash. The transaction is anticipated to close in the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions.

ALG’s resort brand management platform AMResorts® provides management services to the largest portfolio of luxury all-inclusive resorts in the Americas under the AMR™ Collection brand portfolio, including well-known brands Secrets® Resorts & Spa, Dreams® Resorts & Spas, Breathless® Resorts & Spas and Zoëtry® Wellness & Spa Resorts as well as the fast-growing Alua® Hotels & Resorts brand, which is expanding in European leisure destinations. The acquisition also includes ALG’s membership offering, Unlimited Vacation Club®, travel distribution business ALG Vacations®, as well as destination management services and travel technology assets. Following the completion of the transaction, ALG’s business will continue to be led by current ALG CEO Alejandro Reynal and the current ALG leadership team. Mr. Reynal will become a member of Hyatt’s executive leadership team and report to Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian.

“With the asset-light acquisition of Apple Leisure Group, we are thrilled to bring a highly desirable independent resort management platform into the Hyatt family,” said Mark Hoplamazian, president and chief executive officer, Hyatt. “The addition of ALG’s properties will immediately double Hyatt’s global resorts footprint. ALG’s portfolio of luxury brands, leadership in the all-inclusive segment and large pipeline of new resorts will extend our reach in existing and new markets, including in Europe, and further accelerate our industry-leading net rooms growth. Importantly, the combination of this value-creating acquisition and the $2 billion increase in our asset sale commitment will transform our earnings profile, and we expect Hyatt to reach 80% fee-based earnings by the end of 2024.”

ALG’s hotel portfolio consists of over 33,000 rooms operating in 10 countries. The portfolio has grown from nine resorts in 2007 to approximately 100 properties by the end of 2021 and has a pipeline of 24 executed deals with a large number of additional hotels in the development process. ALG’s Unlimited Vacation Club® is an exclusive travel club whose participants enjoy preferred rates and other benefits at AMR™ Collection properties. With over 110,000 members, Unlimited Vacation Club® membership has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 18% over the last five years.

“Combining Hyatt’s deep expertise and global brand footprint with ALG’s strong resort brands, operating capabilities and robust development plans will elevate our differentiated position and create a leader in luxury leisure travel,” said Alejandro Reynal, chief executive officer, Apple Leisure Group. “On behalf of everyone at ALG, I am grateful to our partners at KKR and KSL who supported us in building the platform into what it is today. I am excited to have our team join the Hyatt family and I anticipate a robust growth journey ahead as the industry expands and we are able to provide a best-in-class leisure offering to an even larger group of travelers around the world.”

“Today is a great milestone in what has been a story of growth, resilience, and dedication to world-class leisure experiences by an outstanding team at Apple Leisure Group,” said Chris Harrington and Rich Weissman, partners at KKR and KSL Capital Partners, respectively. “There is simply no better home for ALG to continue on its growth trajectory than being part of Hyatt.”

Strategic Rationale 

Expand footprint in luxury and resort travel: The acquisition will expand Hyatt’s presence in luxury leisure travel and immediately add approximately 100 hotels and a pipeline of 24 executed deals in Europe and the Americas to its portfolio. Following completion of the transaction, Hyatt will offer the largest portfolio of luxury all-inclusive resorts in the world, will double its global resort footprint, will be the largest operator of luxury hotels in Mexico and the Caribbean, and will expand its European footprint by 60 percent. The acquisition will extend Hyatt’s brand footprint into 11 new European markets, greatly enhancing Hyatt’s growth potential in Europe, a critical region for global growth in leisure travel.

Expand platform for growth: ALG’s strong developer and owner base will expand Hyatt’s relationships with deeply committed partners in key complementary geographies. Hyatt’s global network of developers and its operational expertise is expected to further accelerate growth of ALG brands. Hyatt plans to apply the combined strength of the teams to expand beyond ALG’s current pipeline in new geographies in which ALG does not currently have hotels.

Benefit owners: Access to ALG’s owned distribution platforms and its extensive experience in leisure travel are expected to provide significant opportunities for Hyatt’s existing resorts. Owners of AMR™ Collection properties will receive increased access to a much broader collection of brands, and the backing of Hyatt’s global distribution, sales and marketing.

Increase choice and experiences for guests: The combined resources of ALG and Hyatt will open up expanded offerings and experiences for the benefit of the combined companies’ high-end guest and customer base. ALG’s exclusive membership offering, Unlimited Vacation Club®, will bring more than 110,000 highly passionate travelers closer to Hyatt when traveling for a variety of stay occasions apart from vacations. Following completion of the transaction, Hyatt will determine ways in which World of Hyatt and Unlimited Vacation Club® can bring added value and unique loyalty benefits to their member bases while benefitting hotel owners.

Enhance end-to-end leisure travel offerings through: 

ALG Vacations® as one of the largest packaged tour providers and leisure travel distribution platforms in North America serving Mexico and the Caribbean,

Amstar, a leading destination services management company in Mexico and the Caribbean, and its Hawaii-focused counterpart Worldstar, and

Trisept Solutions®, its unique leisure travel technology platform.

Accelerate asset-light strategy: The acquisition of ALG’s asset-light business will meaningfully increase the percentage of revenues and earnings Hyatt will generate from fees. Additionally, Hyatt anticipates fulfilling its current commitment to sell $1.5 billion of hotel real estate in 2021, resulting in a total of over $3 billion of proceeds realized since the asset-sale strategy was announced in 2017 at a combined multiple of over 17x EBITDA as compared to Hyatt’s original estimate of 13x to 15x. Hyatt is further committing to an additional $2 billion in proceeds from the sale of hotel real estate by the end of 2024.

Financing 

At closing, Hyatt expects to fund more than 80 percent of the purchase with a combination of $1.0 billion of cash on hand and new debt financings, and the remainder with approximately $500 million from equity financing. Hyatt has secured a $1.7 billion financing commitment from J.P. Morgan. Cash proceeds from the $2 billion asset sale program are expected to be used to pay down debt, including debt incurred to fund the acquisition. Hyatt is committed to maintaining an investment grade profile and to continue managing the balance sheet prudently after the transaction.

Presentation Hyatt released on Monday:

Conclusion

It seems that Hyatt is buying a pile of crap from two Private Equity Shops at an inflated price.

They are essentially acquiring all-inclusive and other leisure hotel brands that mainly have hotels in the Caribbean and Mexico + some under the Alua brand in Spain and Greece.

Not sure how well the distribution business, such as Southwest and United vacation, fits Hyatt’s business model or decides to sell these businesses to other parties while keeping the hotels?

All the craze right now in the hotel business field, in addition to the soft/collection/conversion brands, are all-inclusive hotels.

Hyatt has traditionally cared about the quality and consistency of their brands that are basically out of the door with the acquisition of Apple Vacations.

Hyatt expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2021. However, integrating new brands into the World of Hyatt always takes some time, and I wouldn’t expect this to occur before 2023.

Choice and Choice Privileges currently has a deal with AMResorts that you can expect to end when the agreement with Hyatt closes.