The new year begins with a decision of enormous impact for the future of Vienna International
Hotelmanagement AG just one year after repositioning itself on the market as Vienna House. The entire
equity stake will be acquired by Vienna House Capital, the Austrian subsidiary of Thailand's U City PCL (U
City), with expected effective date of Summer 2017. The signing took place on 23 February 2017. In the
coming months, the transaction will be prepared, subjected to an antitrust review and approved for closing.
The deal will strengthen the capital structure of Vienna House to secure further investments in growth, in
the business architecture and in pioneering services. At the same time, Vienna House Capital signed the
purchase agreement for seven European hotel properties and one operating company owned by Warimpex
and partially by UBM. All of the hotels involved are already under management by Vienna House. With the
closing, these hotels will be incorporated into the Vienna House Group. U City is a listed Thai commercial
property company. In September 2016, U City made its first strategic step into Europe through its
acquisition of a prime office building in London. The largest shareholder of U City with 35.64 percent is BTS
Group (BTSG), one of Thailand's top publicly listed companies with a market capitalisation of EUR 2.7bn and
four business units: mass transit (Skytrain), media, real estate and services. Both companies are
headquartered in Bangkok and own hotels in Thailand. Piyaporn Phanachet, CEO of U City, explains the
European investment: "This is an acquisition with synergy, which expands our Asian hotel portfolio with a
pan-European one and exposure to both established and fast-growing markets in the continent. We look
forward to continuing our solid growth together with Vienna House and its existing management." "We have
found exactly the strategic partner we were looking for: A strong shareholder who I have known for some
time, who shares our vision of the hotel business and who supports our economic goals," says Rupert
Simoner, CEO of Vienna House, explaining the desired changes. "In this way, we remain one of the last
independent European hotel companies – a fact we are very proud of – and can focus on reaching our growth
targets in brand management, company positioning and portfolio expansion. Vienna House now owns around
half of its current portfolio of 34 hotels – a step that is very important to me from an entrepreneurial point of
view," Simoner adds. The existing lease and management contracts with Vienna House remain valid without
change. Together with Chief Operating Officer Martin Ykema and Chief Financial Officer Johanna
Weichselbaumer, the whole team will continue its work and secure the development of Vienna House
unchanged. Vienna House thus remains an Austrian company with headquarters in Vienna. "Vienna House
owes an enormous thanks to the two representatives of the previous main shareholder, Franz Jurkowitsch
and Georg Folian," says Simoner and adds: "The two founders and I maintain a friendly relationship
characterised by enormous mutual respect and appreciation. I look forward to developing more hotel projects
together with Warimpex and UBM." Vienna House fills a niche between private and chain hotels. This allows
the company to act creatively and flexibly and to make changes. Vienna House demonstrated this not least
with its successful market entry and brand management. The goal now is to grow to 50 hotels in Europe by
the year 2021. Further worldwide hotel openings are being considered in countries with a high affinity for
individual and zeitgeisty European hospitality.