A consortium of Ivanhoé Cambridge and ICAMAP finalize take-over of easyHotel

easyHotel (the “Company”) is the "super-budget" hotel chain that was created in 2004 by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of easyJet. easyHotel is the pan-European owner, developer, operator and franchisor of branded hotels. Its strategy is to target the super budget segment of the hotel industry by marketing "clean, comfortable and safe" hotel rooms to its customers. easyHotel has an estate of 39 hotels with 3,672 rooms, comprising 27 franchised hotels (2,332 rooms) and 12 owned hotels (1,340 rooms). easyHotel is listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2014.

As at 2 August 2019, the ICAMAP Fund was the largest shareholder in easyHotel with 38.7% ownership, through two equity placings in 2016 and 2018, in which it provided most of the capital easyHotel was seeking to raise. 

For some time, ICAMAP had believed that finding another equally supportive investor to share its commitment to developing easyHotel was a priority for the Company. ICAMAP was therefore delighted to partner up with Ivanhoé Cambridge, an existing investor in the ICAMAP Fund, to achieve its ambitions for the Company. Ivanhoé Cambridge, like ICAMAP, recognises that easyHotel needs significant investment to ensure it can fulfil its potential as a leading European budget hotel company.

On 5 August 2019, Ivanhoé Cambridge and the ICAMAP Fund launched a recommended offer on the share capital of easyHotel which the ICAMAP Fund did not own. On 1 October 2019, Citrus UK Bidco Limited, a newly incorporated company owned by Ivanhoé Cambridge and the ICAMAP Fund, received acceptances for the offer which, together with the shares acquired during the offer, result in Ivanhoé Cambridge and the ICAMAP Fund owning together 68.8% of easyHotel’s share capital. 

The offer enabled shareholders to exit from an illiquid stock at a 34.8% premium and resulted in greater clarity of ownership and direction for the Company and its management team. With 27.9% of easyHotel's share capital held by easyGroup, the private investment vehicle of Sir Stelios and the creator and owner of the ‘easy’ family of brands, this leaves a balance of 3.4% minority shareholders.

Each consortium member will appoint one Board member in addition to Harm Meijer, one of the founding partners of ICAMAP, who already sits on the Board since March 2018.