Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has bought a 25 per cent stake in citizenM for an undisclosed amount, bringing the Dutch hospitality chain’s enterprise value to €2 billion (US$2.3 billion).
Lee Kok Sun, chief investment officer of GIC’s real estate arm, said that citizenM represents an “attractive value proposition of affordable luxury in urban markets”.
GIC is CitizenM’s third investor. Along with its two original shareholders KRC Capital and APG, all three entities have committed to investing a further €750 million of equity for future expansion.
Rattan Chadha, founder & executive chairman of citizenM hotels said: “We are excited to have GIC as our new investor. This move will help strengthen our position as one of the leading affordable luxury brands in the industry.”
Chadha founded CitizenM in 2008 with the first hotel in Amsterdam Schiphol, and the brand targeted short-stay business travellers. There are now more than 15 CitizenM hotels across the world, many of which are located in major business cities such as London, New York and Paris.
According to a Financial Times article, as part of its expansion, CitizenM aims to open another 25 hotels in North America, Asia and Europe by 2020. Most recently, the company opened hotels in Copenhagen and Shanghai and became the first hotel company to list on Airbnb.
