HYATT Hotels Corporation and Grupo Piñero have formed an asset-light joint venture to manage the Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts-branded properties and own the Bahia Principe brand.

The proposed 50/50 joint venture was announced on October 28 by Hyatt in a press release but was finalised on December 27. This joint venture brings the 22 resorts, with more than 12,000 rooms, under the Hyatt umbrella which spans more than 65 countries.

The Bahia Principe brand began as a division of the Piñero family in 1995 when it opened its first resort in the Dominican Republic, before opening two Jamaican resorts in 2007 and spreading its wings to Mexico and Spain. Today, there are 11 resorts in the Dominican Republic, five resorts in Spain, four resorts in Mexico, and two in Jamaica — with another resort to be developed at a cost of over US$1.5 billion. A new, 605-room Bahia Principe resort will be developed at a cost of €120 million in Murdeira, on the island of Sal in Cape Verde, by 2027.

“It is a great honour for Grupo Piñero to embark on this long-term alliance with Hyatt — a groundbreaking model for both companies that promises significant benefits and advancements for our respective strategies. We are confident that the combination of our decades of experience as leaders in the all-inclusive sector in the Caribbean and Hyatt’s extensive, global, all-inclusive platform and systems will drive success for our joint venture,” said Encarna Piñero, global CEO of Grupo Piñero, in the release.

As part of this joint venture, Encarna Piñero will chair the board of the joint venture, Bahia Principe CEO Julio Pérez will lead the entity, while Izet Mahalbasic will be the chief financial officer of the entity to be headquartered in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts will join the World of Hyatt loyalty programme at a later date.

Grupo Piñero mentioned last June that it was seeking to transform the hotel business, through different formulas, through the asset-light model in order to allow for it to expand into new markets like Cape Verde and take advantage of local alliances and resources while focusing on hotel management and customer experience. The new five-star hotel in Cape Verde will not only create 500 new direct jobs, but also represented the first Bahia Principe’s first asset light investment where they didn’t directly own the property assets.

Grupo Piñero announced last January that its 2023 revenues had grown by 12 per cent to €956 million ($153.71 billion), which was spread across Bahia Principe (hotels), residential and golf, Turoperation, and its mobility business units. It announced then that it planned to invest €65 million ($10.45 billion) across its different business units, with €40 million to hotels and €16 million to the residential real estate and golf division.

The family company later announced in June that its revenues had exceeded €280 million for the first quarter (January to March 2024), with group EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) rising 12 per cent to €82 million. While it didn’t give specific figures related to its Bahia Principe business, Grupo Piñero noted that revenue improved 15 per cent while EBITDA increased 21 per cent. This was the largest year-over-year growth for Bahia Principe, with hotel occupancy around 85 per cent, and the company shared that it had seen a 15 per cent increase in sales for April across all countries.

Hyatt reported US$32 million in its share of earnings from its unconsolidated hospitality ventures and received US$8 million in distributions from these ventures for the nine months up to September 2024. Hyatt had US$11.87 billion in total consolidated assets and US$1.10 billion in cash, with US$3.70 billion in total equity.

Riu operator sees positive year

RIUSA II S A — operator and manager of owned and leased hotels in TUI Group tourism destinations such as the RIU brand hotels — reported a 15 per cent rise in revenue to €1.37 billion ($219.66 billion) and a 34 per cent rise in net profit to €394.9 million ($63.49 billion) for its 2024 financial year ending September 30. The Spanish based saw a 35 per cent improvement in its operational cashflow to €507.7 million and grew its cash balance by €57.5 million. Total assets also rose three per cent to €2.34 billion while total liabilities increased 27 per cent to €375.5 million.

TUI AG, the German parent company of TUI Group, owns 50 per cent of RIUS II S.A., which is also owned by the RIU Group, a family entity owned by Carmen and Luis Riu. TUI AG switched to an asset-light business model after the COVID-19 pandemic struck, which saw it sell its 49 per cent stake in the RIU Hotels S.A joint venture to the RIU Group for a net cash inflow amount of €541.40 million in July 2021.

RIU opened its seventh resort, called RIU Palace Aquarelle, in May 2024 at Falmouth, Trelawny. The 753-room hotel adds to the existing Riu hotel stock and represented another multi-billion-dollar investment since it opened in Jamaica in 2001.

TUI Group itself saw consolidated revenue grow 12 per cent to €23.17 billion while consolidated net profit grew 55 per cent to €707.4 million, with €507.1 million attributable to shareholders. The growth in revenue was largely driven by the 11 per cent rise in the holiday experiences segment to €20.23 billion, with hotels and resorts bringing in €1.15 billion.

Its consolidated asset base grew eight per cent to €17.42 billion, with €12.15 billion in non-current assets and €2.85 billion in cash. Total liabilities rose 10 per cent to €15.64 billion while shareholders’ equity dipped nine per cent to €1.77 billion.