Hotel group Minor International to add new Australian sites as part of global push

One of Minor’s Italian hotels, the Avani Palazzo Moscova Milan.

The founder and chairman of one of the world’s largest hospitality and lifestyle groups, Minor International, says Thai and European hotels produce the best yields, but that is not stopping a global expansion of the Bangkok-based public company.

“Without a doubt Thailand and Europe, particularly Spain and Italy, is where we have a huge footprint,” Minor International founder and chairman, William Heinecke said.

“Thailand is a market we know well and in Europe in 2018 we acquired the highly profitable NH Hotel Group for US$3bn.

“We look at our cost of capital and in places like Africa and Thailand we have a much higher return on capital, whereas Australia is considered to be a safe market,” he said, adding “it’s not changing government all the time”.

“There’s certainly no question Australia is an expensive market in terms of rents and labour. Australia is not one of the areas of high profit for us,” he said.

The guest lobby in Anantara Stanley and Livingstone Victoria Falls Hotel.

Nevertheless, Minor International is continuing to diversify and is adding four more Australian properties to its portfolio, and is also prioritising North America and North Asia.

“We are diversifying one’s risk, trying to build a natural hedge,” he said adding that you can’t stop geopolitical disasters.

“We have a natural hedge thanks to our global position.”

Mr Heinecke said the 2018 acquisition of NH Hotels gave Minor a huge footprint in South America and Europe.

Bill Heinecke, founder and chairman of Minor Hotels.

“To make these big moves you really have to make a big acquisition,” he said, adding that nowadays it’s hard to build a hotel portfolio from the ground up.

“We are looking at opportunities in Japan, and opening our first Anantara in Miami as well as properties in New York.

“We are always looking at acquisitions.

“We are a public company, we have to put our shareholders in a premium position, we want to be profitable, we give a lot back to our communities, and we are focused on our sustainability across the 60 markets we operate in.”

Markets such as Morocco, Egypt and Turkey have also been identified as priority destinations for Minor.

The Bangkok-based company led by Mr Heinecke for nearly 60 years currently operates more than 560 properties and is on track to surpass 870 properties by 2027.

At present Minor fully owns or long-term leases about 60 per cent of its hotels.

The rooftop pool at the Avani Plus Riverside Bangkok Hotel.

“We became more asset-heavy during our acquisition of NH Hotels. We want to return to an asset-right strategy, we will transfer some of our assets to a Singapore REIT later this year, so we can look at other acquisitions.

“We will always have assets,” said Mr Heinecke, adding that Minor is the largest hotel owner in Italy with 75 hotels including four in Rome, five in Milan, three in Florence and also on the Amalfi Coast.

In Australia Minor has properties including the Avani Mooloolaba Beach Hotel, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, opening on April 1.

The first Avani in Wollongong, south of Sydney, opens next year. More are planned for the Sydney CBD and the international airport.

Minor Hotels acquired a controlling stake in Australia’s Oaks Hotels and Resorts in 2011.

Across Australia and New Zealand, there are 65 Minor Hotels properties, including seven Avani Hotels and Resorts and an Elysia Wellness Retreat.

Last year Minor Hotels recorded its strongest growth in recent years, with a record number of signings and five hotels entering the portfolio, including the Oaks Lake Crackenback Resort.