Kartesia sponsors Petit Palace - Soho Boutique alliance to build Spain’s largest urban boutique hotel network

Kartesia, the European specialist provider of capital solutions for small and mid-sized companies, is pleased to announce its support to the strategic alliance between Petit Palace (“the Company”) and Soho Boutique Hotels, creating the largest operator of independent urban boutique hotels in the Iberian Peninsula.

The alliance marks a significant milestone in the execution of Petit Palace’s long-term growth strategy. Kartesia was the lead investor in the acquisition of Petit Palace in May 2024, the operator of Petit Palace and ICON Hotels, with the objective of supporting its growth in Southern Europe. Since that investment, Kartesia has worked closely with the Petit Palace’s management team and incumbent family-owned shareholders to expand its portfolio and enhance its urban, leisure, boutique proposition.

This represents the second transaction completed in less than 2 years for Petit Palace, following the acquisition of Barcelona-based Sunotel in August 2024. The Company’s long-term strategy is to pursue a disciplined consolidation of its market segment via selective M&A and organic development, keeping the homogeneity of its product and service offering focused in the upper-midscale urban leisure segment.

Signed on April 30, the strategic alliance is structured in two phases designed to ensure a smooth and disciplined integration. The first phase involves the incorporation of 12 Soho Boutique Hotels into Petit Palace, alongside the creation of a joint venture to develop new urban hotel projects in strategic locations in Spain, Italy and Portugal. The second phase provides for the integration of the remainder of the Soho Boutique portfolio by December 31, 2027, subject to the achievement of agreed operational milestones, completing the consolidation of the platform.

The alliance will more than double Petit Palace’s asset base and meaningfully expand the Company’s presence across Spain’s principal cities, reinforcing its leadership position in a segment characterised by strong demand fundamentals, limited supply of prime locations and attractive opportunities for consolidation.

Kartesia and all family-owned shareholders have supported the transaction with an equity injection in the Company and remain committed through this phase of growth, leveraging its experience in European hospitality and platform consolidation to drive long-term value creation for all stakeholders.

Besides Kartesia’s backing, the support of the syndicate of banks led by Banco Santander has been instrumental.

Capital for the transaction was deployed from Kartesia’s KCO strategy. The deal team at Kartesia comprised Tomás Neuhaus, Carlos Vázquez and Alberto García.

Tomás Neuhaus at Kartesia, commented: “This alliance is an organic step in the strategy we set out following our investment in Petit Palace in 2024. Soho Boutique brings a highly complementary portfolio to Petit Palace sharing the essence of its value proposition: a boutique experience for leisure travellers that are looking to live like locals in prime locations in the main Spanish and Portuguese urban destinations. We are looking forward to this partnership with Gonzalo Armenteros and Antonio Gordillo with the aim of building a scaled, resilient and market-leading boutique hotel platform in the upper midscale. Petit Palace is also undergoing an €50m investment program to upgrade and reposition certain existing hotels while undertaking acquisitions and integrations. This speaks highly about the capabilities of the management team as the Company executes smoothly its value creation plan.”

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For further details please contact:

H/Advisors Maitland – Finlay Donaldson
kartesia-maitland@h-advisors.global
+44 (0) 7341 788 066