easyHotel Acquires Eight Benelux Hotels from Crossroads Real Estate for €145m in European Growth Drive

• Goal of becoming European leader in affordable low-carbon hotels with 100 hotels across
  Europe by 2026
• Owned/leased estate growing 59% with the transaction
• Aiming for 51 Owned and Franchised hotels in 13 countries over next 18 months
• Economic outlook favours affordable hotels

easyHotel, the low-carbon affordable hotel chain, today announces it has acquired eight franchised Benelux hotels from real estate private equity fund manager Crossroads Real Estate, for approximately 145 million euros. The deal is fully supported by easyHotel’s majority shareholders, ICAMAP and Ivanhoé Cambridge.

This acquisition marks the latest step in an ambitious European growth strategy which the Group, founded by Stelios Haji-Iannou and whose majority shareholders are now ICAMAP and Ivanhoé Cambridge, had announced in December 2021, with notably a €50m capital increase. The eight hotels acquired total 793 rooms, with three hotels in Amsterdam, two in The Hague, one in Rotterdam, one in Maastricht, and one in Brussels.

With two further hotels to be added to the Group’s owned/leased portfolio in Dublin in December 2022 and Paris in early 2023, the acquisition underpins significant growth in easyHotel’s owned/leased estate. This will reach 26 hotels, split evenly between the UK and Europe, with the total number of owned hotel rooms across the portfolio increasing by 59% to 3,078 rooms.

The move demonstrates the company’s commitment to developing its presence in Europe through growth and acquisition to become the pan-European leader of low carbon hotels. easyHotel currently has a total of 42 owned/leased and franchised hotels, which it aims to expand to 51 hotels in 13 countries over the next 18 months, and to reach a total of 100 owned and franchised hotels internationally by 2026. Whilst the acquisition will strengthen the Group’s owned portfolio, easyHotel remains committed to its franchised network, which is instrumental to its growth strategy, with a target of 12,000 franchised rooms by 2027. The next franchise hotel opening in the Group’s pipeline will be Madrid, in the central Atocha area, with a 230-bedroom hotel due to open in late 2022. During the wider cost-of-living crisis, easyHotel is seeing more customers switch to affordable hotels, a trend which it expects to continue in the current macroeconomic environment.

Karim Malak, CEO of easyHotel commented: “This strategic acquisition is an important milestone in our plan to increase our presence in continental Europe from a strong UK base. Consumers place increasing importance on value, hence increasing demand for affordable hotels across Europe and the UK, a trend which we expect to continue given current inflation. We are seeing strong trading and market share gain across both our UK portfolio and the Benelux hotels, with figures exceeding 2019 levels and outperforming the market. Trading across our Benelux hotels has for example exceeded 2019 by +24% whilst our existing portfolio is on average up 37% compared to 2019, like for like."