Crédit Mutuel Equity, the international direct investment company of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, has entered into an investment partnership with somnOO to provide growth capital for the expansion of its hotel portfolio and management platform.
In the course of the transaction, somnOO's management team will take a stake in the company.
somnOO holds equity interests in and operates over 60 hotels. The company is currently active in Germany, France and Switzerland and always takes an equal stake in hotel properties and operations.
The new equity capital provided by Crédit Mutuel Equity will be used to convert existing minority shareholdings into majority shareholdings and to make acquisitions.
To date, somnOO has focused on individual acquisitions but will now be open to future portfolio acquisitions as well. In the coming years, somnOO aims to become one of the top five European hotel owner-operators.
Lars Backhaus and Christian Rousseau, founders and CEOs of somnOO, said: 'We are very much looking forward to working with Crédit Mutuel Equity as an anchor investor. We were not only convinced by the well-known name and solid background combined with relevant industry experience, but also by the respectful interaction and the cooperative attitude.
'We share the principle of equality of interests with our co-investors, which is an important cultural factor. Crédit Mutuel Equity's 'patient capital' approach also allows us to develop our business step by step, which is very important to us.'
Fabienne Mazières, managing director Germany and Switzerland at Crédit Mutuel Equity, said: 'somnOO is a typical investment for us. As an entrepreneurial financial partner, we want to grow with our investments. somnOO is entering a phase of intense and dynamic growth, which we can optimally support with capital, know-how and network.'
somnOO was founded in 2014 by Backhaus and Rousseau and has since built a diversified hotel portfolio of more than 4,000 rooms in the two, three and four-star categories, catering to both leisure and business travellers. The company operates its hotels under its own brands as well as under franchise agreements with Best Western, Holiday Inn, Ibis, Kyriad and Novotel, among others.
