ROME: UnipolSai SpA, Italy’s second-largest insurer, agreed to buy the hotel businesses of Una SpA for 287 million euros ($315 million) to boost its market share in the hospitality industry and diversify investments.
The transaction includes a 259 million-euro real estate portfolio of hotels from Venice to Catania, Sicily, and Una’s hotel management unit, Bologna-based UnipolSai said in a statement Monday.
Chief Executive Officer Carlo Cimbri is seeking to improve the insurer’s profitability after completing a four-way merger to rescue unprofitable competitor Fondiaria-SAI SpA, which faced probes of alleged misconduct by former managers at the time.
Unipol plans to combine Una hotel with its Atahotels chain to create “a national leader in the Italian hotel industry” with more than 50 hotels, about 8,600 rooms and aggregate revenue of more than 170 million euros, the firm said.
“The acquisition is likely to complete Atahotels’ restructuring process, begun after the merger with Fondiaria-SAI,” Francesco Previtera, an analyst at Banca Akros, wrote in a note today.
