La Manga Club Aquired By Hesperia Investment Group
Hesperia Investment Group reaches an agreement to acquire award winning tourism, residential and sports resort La Manga Club
Hesperia Investment Group (GIHSA), headed by its president Jose Antonio Castro Sousa, has reached an agreement with Arum Group to acquire a majority stake of the luxury resort La Manga Club.
GIHSA will invest in the improvement of the complex in order to create the best leisure and sports resort in Southern Europe.
Arum Group will continue to run the real estate business in La Manga Club through its subsidiary Inmogolf, with great development potential due to the tourist appeal of its location.
Jesús Abellán, CEO of Arum Group, points out that: “Hesperia is the optimal partner to continue with this expansion project as this deal strengthens not only the resort’s further extension but also the development of the whole area, with a huge potential for residential tourism growth.”
A strategic deal for GIHSA
Since its opening in 1972, La Manga Club has gone through different development stages until becoming one of the most renowned leisure and sports resorts in Southern Europe. With this strategic deal GIHSA boosts its business activity in the premium resort business arena and brings its expansion plan a step further after initiating its new independent business plan at the end of last year.
According to Jordi Ferrer, CEO of GIHSA, “This operation perfectly matches our growth strategy in the hotel market with quality assets that allow us to keep consolidating as a reference in the Spanish hotel industry and in particular this acquisition will allow us to create the best resort in South Europe.”
La Manga Club adds to Hesperia’s property and asset management portfolio comprising of over 5.000 rooms owned, operated and managed by Hesperia; 29 hotels with 6 leisure resorts located in the Balearic Islands, Peninsula and Canary Islands, as well as 23 urban hotels situated in Spain’s main cities.
The resort becomes part of Hesperia Hotels & Resorts catalogue of leisure and sports facilities, which so far was focused on the Canary and Balearic Islands where it owns four resorts. Three of them are included in the strategic alliance with Apple Leisure Group (ALG). In this sense, GIHSA is considering the option of closing a commercial deal with an international operator for some of the hotels at La Manga Club, as the company’s CEO, Jordi Ferrer, underlines: “Our strategy consists in always looking for the best alternative for each hotel.”
The five star hotel, Príncipe Felipe of La Manga Club, comprises of 192 rooms with magnificent views over the North and South golf courses as well as an outdoor pool, restaurants, bars and several meeting, conference and events rooms.
Aside from the hotel, there are 200 four-star apartments on the resort (Las Lomas Village) especially designed for families and sports teams with common areas that include two pools as well as leisure zones and restaurants. Within Las Lomas Village is a 2.000 sqm wellness centre with 13 treatment rooms, saunas, steam rooms, jacuzzies, a high performance sports centre, gym and a 25m semi-olympic indoor pool.
On the resort there is a Golf Academy, Pitch and Putt facility, a junior club and play area and a wide range of bars and restaurants which the guests of the hotel Príncipe Felipe, Las Lomas and resort owners and residents all have access without forgetting the beautiful cove called La Cala on the Mediterranean side of the resort.
A leisure and sports resort that is a reference in Europe
One of the main attractions at La Manga Club is its impressive variety of sports facilities. The complex has three 18 hole championship golf courses, each one with its own character, designed by renowned personalities of the golf world such as Robert Dean Putman, Arnold Palmer and Dave Thomas. There is also a superb Golf Academy and a Pitch & Putt designed by Severiano Ballesteros. In 2017 the golf club was proud to be renamed by the Spanish king to “Real Golf La Manga Club”.
The sports offer also includes the Tennis Centre and with as many as 28 courts it is one of the most renowned open-door tennis centres in Europe. Due to its cutting-edge facilities it has hosted some of the most important events in the tennis calendar such as the Davis Cup, Fed Cup and several ATP tournaments.
The Football Centre at La Manga Club offers eight FIFA size football pitches which has hosted many of the world’s best football teams. The European Cricket Performance Centre comprises of 23 natural grass nets, 2 natural grass squares as well as 6 artificial grass nets. La Manga Club is also the perfect venue for other sports such as cycling, rugby or triathlon.
This broad scope of sporting options is combined with a diverse high-quality gastronomic offer with 15 bars and restaurants completing La Manga Club’s leisure experience.
