Gold Coast Mantra Group on the acquisition trail
The Gold Coast Mantra Group has acquired five new hotels, giving the listed Surfers Paradise company more than 900 rooms across Australia and New Zealand.
Hotels added to the portfolio of 126 properties are Peppers Southbank in Melbourne; Mantra 900 Hay Street in Perth; Peppers Queenstown Resort in Queenstown, New Zealand; Mantra Club Crocodile, at Airlie Beach, and Mantra Observatory, at Port Macquarie.
Peppers Southbank in Melbourne will be the second Peppers hotel for that city. It’s added to the nine Mantra hotels in Melbourne’s CBD. The 164-room hotel is set to open in late 2018.
Work on the $38 million 4.5 star Mantra 900 Hay Street in Perth, WA, a 26-storey, 250-room hotel, is due to start early next year. It will be Mantra’s fourth hotel in Perth.
The Queenstown resort will grow Mantra Group’s portfolio to 12 properties in the land of the long white cloud, including three in Queenstown.
All of this is in addition to the 11 new properties and more than 3000 rooms added to its inventory.
That makes Mantra Australia’s fastest growing hotel group for the year.
Mantra Group CEO Bob East said the acquisitions are totally strategic - the properties are located in premier leisure and CBD destinations “where Mantra Group has a longstanding and high performing presence”.
“This latest group of acquisitions reinforces the strong momentum in our growth strategy and highlights our ability to convert our pipeline,” Mr East told the Gold Coast Bulletin.
“With seven acquisition announcements in the first five months of FY2017, we’re well-placed to exceed last year’s record result.”
Mr East says that Mantra is looking at hotels in Hawaii and mainland US after the success of its $71 million acquisition of the massive Ala Moana hotel in Hawaii. That was its largest buy to date.
However, he said the big growth will be in Australia and New Zealand, taking advantage of the booming inbound tourism market, particularly from Asia.
by Leon Gettler, November 24th 2016
