Hyatt’s deal to buy Apple Leisure Group (ALG) for $2.7 billion in cash has probably been the most talked-about hotel deal of the year—at least so far.
The transaction highlighted the premium buyers are placing on leisure brands as we exit the pandemic but as Fernando Fernandez, vice president of development at ALG, explained recently at IHIF, the two companies have been talking for a while. Not only that, he also revealed a couple of other potential suitors.
“We’ve been talking with Hyatt for the last two years, this didn’t start like six months ago. So we’ve been talking not only [to] Hyatt, we’ve talked to Marriott, we’ve talked to Hilton… finally we did it with Hyatt,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez couldn’t talk too much about the transaction as it has not closed yet, that will happen sometime later in October or possibly in November. He did, however, go on to explain why it was a “win-win”.
“My company Apple Leisure Group is going to benefit from the loyalty program, the 25 million customers of Hyatt, so it’s going to become another distribution channel,” he said.
As well as being a resort manager with properties across Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and Europe, ALG also has a substantial distribution arm, which moves about 3.5 million U.S. travelers to the Caribbean every year.
“For Hyatt, Hyatt becomes the number-one resort operator in the all-inclusive segment,” Fernandez said.
To read the entire story visit our sister publication Hospitality Insights' website.
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