Norwegian family office Wenaasgruppen has exited Russia with the sale of all 10 of its hotels there to Russian firm Cosmos Hotel Group for 200 million euros ($211 million).
The deal was concluded between subsidiaries Wenaas Hotel Russia AS and Cosmos’ wholly owned division Cosmos Northwest, according to a news release from Cosmos’ parent company Sistema, a Russian investment firm. Both sides first agreed to the deal on Feb. 1.
Russian news agency Interfax added the deal includes “a voluntary contribution to the Russian budget, which was one of the conditions for securing permission for the exit from the Russian authorities.”
Måndalen, Norway-based Wenaas owned 4,072 rooms in four Russian cities, with six of the hotels in St. Petersburg, two in Moscow and one each in Ekaterinburg and Murmansk.
Specific hotels include five hotels managed by Radisson Hotels in St. Petersburg: the 1,178-room Park Inn by Radisson Pribaltiyskaya Hotel & Congress Center, 842-room Park Inn by Radisson Pulkovskaya Hotel & Conference Center, 269-room Park Inn by Radisson Nevsky, 200-room Park Inn by Radisson Pulkovo Airport and 164-room Radisson Royal Hotel.
In addition, four of the other five hotels are managed by Radisson. Finnish group Sokos Hotels managed the remaining hotel in the list.
Wenaasgruppen’s remaining hotel portfolio consists of 18 hotels and 7,715 rooms, 12 of which are Radisson hotels. In recent years, the company acquired the 312-room Radisson Collection Hotel Warsaw, 412-room Don Giovanni Hotel Prague and 503-room Comfort Hotel Arlanda at Stockholm’s international airport.
In its latest earnings, the firm reported annual leasing revenue of approximately 1.4 billion Norwegian kronor ($131 million), a figure that included rent from the Russian hotels.
The Sistema release said the combined revenue of the 10 Russian hotels in 2021 was 4.3 billion rubles ($57 million). Pre-COVID-19, in 2019, the combined revenue was 6.2 billion rubles.
It added the total net debt of the acquired companies is negative.
Neither Radisson nor Wenaasgruppen have provided comments on the deal as of publication time.