NH Hotel Should Be Skeptical of Hyatt Inquiry, Minor Tells Board

(Bloomberg) -- NH Hotel Group SA should put little weight on an expression of interest from Hyatt Hotels Corp., suitor Minor International Pcl told the board of the Spanish hotel operator in a letter.

Hyatt’s approach to NH Hotel is preliminary and nonbinding, indicating that it’s not a serious proposal, Stephen Chojnacki, chief commercial officer and general counsel for Bangkok-based Minor, said in the July 29 letter. Hyatt’s proposal to separate NH Hotel’s real estate from its hotel-management business risks stripping away assets and would lead to major cost cutting, Chojnacki said in the letter, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News.

Any eventual bid by Chicago-based Hyatt would compete with Minor’s own tender offer for the Madrid-based chain of more than 370 hotels, which was announced in early June. Hyatt said last week that it had written to the Spanish company to indicate its interest in an acquisition and stating that Minor’s tender offer understated NH Hotel’s value.

A successful tender offer for NH Hotel by Hyatt would create a larger, more efficient company that would “powerfully shape the European hotel landscape,” Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt’s president and chief executive officer, wrote in that letter.

Dillip Rajakarier, chief operating officer of the Thai bidder, said in a July 27 interview that Hyatt’s interest in acquiring NH Hotel had come too late stop its own offer from succeeding. Including a planned purchase of 8.4 percent of NH Hotel from HNA Group Co., Minor is on course to own 44 percent of the Madrid-based chain.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charles Penty in Madrid at cpenty@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vidya Root at vroot@bloomberg.net, Kevin Miller, Mark Niquette

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