Rabo acquires minority stake in Fletcher Hotels

Rabo Private Equity BV -the private equity arm of the Rabobank Group- has acquired a minority stake in Fletcher Hotels.

The Dutch hotel chain, which offers cheap last minute deals as well as family biking and walking packages, owns an array of three and four star resorts across the Netherlands.

The Fletcher Hotels has the ambition to grow substantially in the future by buying and renovating existing and new hotels.

Rabobank Voorne-Putten Rozenburg provided the debt finance and RaPar (part of Rabo Private Equity) provided the equity for the deal.

Leo Groothuis and Jeroen Holland from Nauta Dutilh assisted the Rabobank in this deal. Rob Hendriks and Krijn Keukens from BANNING assisted Chris Luken on the transaction and Paul Nielen from Nielen Schuman acted as corporate finance advisor to Fletcher.

Rob Hendriks, of BANNING, said ?ANNING is the permanent legal advisor of Chris Luken who is the indirect owner of Fletcher Hotel Group. The Fletcher Hotel Group currently exploits approximately 50 three and four star hotels in the Netherlands.

However they plan to grow substantially in the future by acquiring and developing more hotels.

In order to finance its growth ambition the Fletcher Hotel Group, together with corporate finance firm Nielen Schuman and BANNING, set up a process in order to select a partner who could help it with its future ambitions.

At the end of the process Rabobank was selected as the partner who will invest in the Fletcher Hotel Group through debt finance and equity.

This article is published in ACQ Magazine edition April/May 2011