With this operation, which was concluded in February, besides the 12 hotels – amongst which are hotels Hotel Real Palácio (Lisbon) and Real Bellavista Hotel & Spa (Albufeira)-, Palminvest now also owns a set of 20 offices, 15 warehouses, 60 terrains, 2.000 apartments and 500 commercial spaces.
This purchase «was a great way for us to grow in all market segments and in terms of geographical distribution», revealed Eurico de Almeida, the company’s administrator, in an interview to newspaper Eco.
But it was in the hotel segment that Palminvest saw its position be reinforced the most, with an added 1.500 beds spread across Lisbon and the Algarve. The company is «probably the hotel chain with more beds in Lisbon and Porto», added Eurico Almeida.
Nevertheless, the hotel segment’s current inactivity caused by the Covid-19 crisis will lead the new owner to invest in more units of this type. «Until the end of the year, or until March 2021, we will not have a proper recovery and, thus, we will need to invest between 15 and 20 million euro», revealed the administrator.
On the other hand, with this acquisition came the inherited debts which are already being redeemed. On this issue, Eurico de Almeida explained that «we will need to bet money in order to pay the debts and restructure the entire group Grupo Bernardino Gomes financially. Between the hotel and the real estate segments, that debt is not so high. We have redeemed, at least, 30% of it», he added.
