Novobanco pays €34 million for two Sonae Capital hotels in Tróia

Novobanco, through one of its pension funds, has bought two hotels in Tróia from Sonae Capital, in a deal that closed for about €34 million, ECO knows. The company had already announced last week the sale of Aqualuz Tróia Mar&Rio and The Editory By The Sea Tróia-Comporta, belonging to Tróia Resort, but without giving further details.

It is considered “one of the largest hotel real estate investment operations carried out in the Portuguese market since the beginning of the year,” said the consultancy JLL, which advised on the operation, in a statement last week.

ECO has since learnt that the buyer is a Novobanco pension fund and that the deal was closed for €34 million, equivalent to a yield of 5.75%. Despite selling the hotels, The Editory Hotels, Sonae Capital’s Hospitality business unit, will continue to manage them, in what is a sale&leaseback operation.

At stake are the Aqualuz Tróia Mar & Rio Hotel by The Editory and The Editory By The Sea Tróia Comporta Hotel, of four and five stars, respectively, both belonging to Tróia Resort. Together, the two units represent 337 flats.

In an interview with ECO after the announcement of this deal, the hospitality director of Sonae Capital said that the company has €15 million available to invest in new hotels in the next five years. Pedro Capitão explained that, although Tróia is “an important market”, the company’s strategy involves “diversifying geographies”.

If we make this parallel between the relative weight of each of these tourist markets versus Tróia, we are carrying too much weight in Tróia. It is in this sense that we are looking to increase our exposure to markets with more depth. Algarve and Lisbon are the two largest national tourist destinations and we want to have greater exposure there. It makes more sense for us to grow there than in Tróia,” the director explained.