When Grupo Posadas applied to enter Chapter 11 , one of the first surprises was its commitment to complete the restructuring process in “approximately 60 days,” according to the statement published by the company on October 26, 2021. And it complied. Little less than two months later, the largest hotel company in the country announced the end of the process, which in March officially closed the legal proceedings in the United States.
The company resorted to restructuring under US law a year and a half after Aeroméxico, which took advantage of the scheme just over three months after the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic.
The reason that prompted the Posadas administration to approve its financial reorganization was a bond of its 7.875% senior notes that matured in 2022, and that were renegotiated with their holders to be exchanged for new notes, for 392.6 million dollars, a transaction which will extend its validity for 5.5 years, until December 30, 2027.
However, this negotiation was closed with his creditors two months before he officially entered Chapter 11, which made a difference in getting out of the process in record time.
Now, the challenge is to continue with a growth strategy to feed a portfolio that, at the end of the first quarter of the year, totaled 185 hotels, five more than it had until before the pandemic.
According to the restructuring plan that the company presented to the US Court in its reorganization, it foresees investments of more than 100 million dollars by 2026, which will be used for the maintenance of its own and leased hotels, investments in technology, in addition to sales and resources to grow your portfolio of managed and franchised hotels.
The resources are expected to make the hotel company more competitive and contribute to revenue generation by 2026.
From here to where?
Growing up after covid-19 has its peculiarities. While the markets for leisure tourism have performed well –even exceeding the influx prior to the pandemic–, the cities still face a drop in demand that, in the case of Posadas, implies a greater challenge as it has 87% of its hotels in cities, and the remaining 13%, on beaches.
Roberto Montalvo, an academic from the Universidad Iberoamericana, says that this scenario represents an opportunity to promote the midscale & economy category, the one that usually groups three to four star hotels.
“Now, its strengths are going to be built by hotels like One, whichever has that low range, which has better cost and good services. They are not going to bet more on the luxury sector, they have brands and hotels positioned. Now we have to maintain them and try to continue projecting them”, he says.
It is in this segment where the company has been most active. To date, Posadas has a development plan to operate 21 new hotels with 4,018 rooms, with an investment of 17,226 million pesos. Among the new complexes, new brands have been promoted, such as IOH, with a concept that the company describes as freestyle, aimed at mixing concepts such as business trips, pleasure trips and remote work.
Julián Fernández, head of Analysis at Grupo Bursamérica, believes that preserving the value of the hotels – the company’s main assets – has been one of its greatest advantages; but right now it could point to diversification even beyond the hotel sector.
“Although it has many business hotels, it has few on the leisure side, but there could be a better balance between one sector and another. It could bet on formats such as those handled by Fibra Uno, which even has a rental segment in hospitals, hotels and shopping malls; that could be the future that Posadas would have”, he concludes.
