The State Assets Management Agency announced that the five-star Hyatt Regency Tashkent hotel had been purchased, the press service of the SAMA reported.
100% of the government stake in Poytaxt qurilish va xizmat LLC, which owns the hotel, was bought out by one of the largest investment funds in Uzbekistan - JV Abu Dhabi Uzbek Investment LLC, established by the Abu Dhabi Development Fund (75%) and the Uzbekistan Fund for Reconstruction and Development (25 %). The deal price stands at US$87 million.
The international consulting company KPMG Valuation and Consulting acted as a privatization consultant, while the independent assessment was carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Preparations for the sale of the stake began in December 2021, and in March the call for proposald was announced.
Reportedly, as part of the privatization, the consultant and the agency conducted "large-scale marketing steps both locally and internationally," including the distribution of an investment sounding to investors, through a regional network of offices around the world.
As a result, 5 expresses of interests were received from applicants from North America, Asia, Europe, and Uzbekistan. 3 investors reached the final stage of binding obligations and received access to the virtual data room , which presented independent reports on comprehensive financial, tax, legal and due diligence.
“Based on the findings of the study the received binding proposals for compliance with qualification requirements, having experience in the region, including the hotel industry, the conditions for closing the transaction and providing the best purchase price that exceeds the independent assessment of the Enterprise, JV LLC Abu Dhabi Uzbek Investment was announced as the winner of the international tender," the statement said.
The agency added that the offer of the investment fund was "in the upper indicative price range of the hotel", which is calculated by the consultant, and also "significantly exceeds the independent assessment of the hotel." At the same time, the investor also has additional investment obligations for $12 million.
Full payment for the transaction will be made in one payment after signing the sale contract.
The Hyatt Regency Tashkent hotel was inaugurated in 2016 in Tashkent and became the first hotel of the international Hyatt brand in Uzbekistan. This is the only five-star hotel in Uzbekistan, which is directly managed by an international hotel chain.
The total land area is 3.1 hectares, the area of buildings and structures is 60.1 thousand square meters. m.
The hotel is located on 8 floors with 300 rooms, including 248 standard and 52 junior suites and suites. It hosts several conference rooms, a banqueting hall on 850 sqm, an indoor swimming pool and a SPA-center.
The owner of the hotel is the State Unitary Enterprise Poytakht qurilish va hizmat. The construction of Hyatt Regency Tashkent cost $205 million, including a loan from the People's Bank of 100 billion soums from the funds of the Accumulative Pension System, allocated for 7 years (with a grace period of 1 year, with an interest rate of 9% per annum). The loan agreement between the Halq Bank and Poytakht Qurilish Va Khizmat was entered into as an exception without applying the standards of the Central Bank.
