By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Hyatt Hotels stock (NYSE:H) was down 0.6% in Monday’s premarket trading a day after the company said it plans to buy Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Leisure Group for $2.7 billion from affiliates of each of KKR and KSL Capital Partners.
Apple Leisure is a leading luxury resort-management services, travel and hospitality group and its acquisition deepens Hyatt’s portfolio of asset-light business. Resort management services need less clash and are built on a brand’s best-in-class practices.
The acquisition will expand Hyatt’s presence in luxury leisure travel and immediately add approximately 33,000 rooms, 100 hotels in 10 countries and a pipeline of 24 executed deals in Europe and the Americas to its portfolio.
The deal comes at a time when travel has come roaring back after the pandemic even as it has run into fresh hiccups with the spread of the delta variant.
KKR and KSL bought the company from Bain Capital in 2016 with the goal of expanding its vertically integrated platform. Apple Leisure subsequently did its own acquisitions, agreeing to merge with The Mark Travel in 2018 and then acquiring a majority share in Spain’s Alua Hotels & Resorts in the same year.