News 2006
Hyatt Regency Hotels & Tourism to be acquired by BC Partners
Funds advised by BC Partners, a leading European Private Equity firm, today announced the acquisition of 51.57% of Hyatt Regency Hotels & Tourism from its majority shareholder, Hellenic Casinos Company, a company jointly controlled by the Pritzker, Laskaridis and Theocharakis families. The price agreed is €11 per share.
Headquartered in Athens, Hyatt Regency Hotels & Tourism is the leading operator of casinos in southeastern Europe with casinos in Athens, Thessaloniki and Tirana. It also operates the Hyatt Hotel in Thessaloniki. For the year ended 31 December 2004, the company reported revenues of €298m. The company has some 2,500 employees.
Commenting on the transaction, Nikos Stathopoulos, partner of BC Partners, said:
"We are committed to operating Hyatt Regency with the current management team to the standards of integrity, transparency, quality and service that Hyatt Regency's employees and customers have come to expect. This is our first investment in Greece where we plan to continue to be active."
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For further information:
Cardew Group for BC Partners
Richard Spiegelberg/Eden Mendel - Tel: +44 20 7930 0777
Notes to Editors
Hyatt Regency Hotels & Tourism (Hellas) SA
Hyatt Regency was founded in 1994 and started its Thessaloniki casino operations in 1996. In 1999, it opened its hotel in Thessaloniki and in the same year listed on the Athens Stock Exchange. In 2000, Hyatt Regency obtained Board majority control of Lampsa SA and successfully completed, within two years, the total refurbishment of the historic "Grande Bretagne" Hotel in Athens. In 2003, Hyatt Regency was awarded an exclusive license for the Mont Parnes Casino in which it owns a 34.3% shareholding interest and a 100% management contract. Recently, in November 2005, Hyatt Regency commenced operations of a casino in Tirana in which it has a 15-year exclusive license, a 30.5% shareholding interest and a 100% management contract.
BC Partners
BC Partners is a leading pan-European Equity firm, operating through integrated teams based in Geneva, Hamburg, London, Milan and Paris. The latest fund BC European Capital VIII closed in May 2005 with over €5.7bn of commitments and is one of the largest European buy-out funds to date. Over 17 years the firm has developed a long track record of successfully acquiring and developing European businesses in partnership with management, investing in 60 acquisitions with a combined enterprise value of EUR 42.7 billion. Recent investments include the following: Fitness First (UK, £835m), Amadeus (Spain, €4.6bn), Dometic (Sweden, €1.1bn), Picard (France, €1.3bn) and Baxi (UK, €984m).