According to a report in Bloomberg, Hyatt Hotels Corp. is looking to acquire boutique hotel operator Standard International, the company behind The Standard brand of hotels, Bunkhouse Group and Thailand's The Peri Hotel chain. An unnamed source told the publication that no transaction has been finalized and a deal still could fall through.
André Balazs launched the Standard brand in 2009 with The Standard High Line in New York City, the first hotel brand he developed himself. Balazs stepped down in 2017. Today, the company has 19 hotel and food & beverage venues.
In recent years, Hyatt has gained ground through a number of acquisitions. Most recently, the company purchased the London-based Mr & Mrs Smith luxury hotel booking platform for an enterprise value of £53 million in cash consideration. This followed the acquisitions of Dream Hotel Group for $125 million and Germany’s Lindner Hotels AG in 2022, Apple Leisure Group in 2021, Two Roads Hospitality in 2018 and the Miraval and the Exhale spa brands in 2017.
During the company's Q1 2024 earnings call in May, President and CEO Mark Hoplamazian said the M&A growth is likely to continue. “We are ... actively engaged in more transactions now than we were over the course of last year,” he told investors at the time. “These kinds of transactions take different forms and shapes. Some of them are portfolio deals, some of them are brand acquisitions [and] some of them are management companies with brand management.” When considering acquisitions, he added, the company considers possible customer base, geography and the way the deal could expand the World of Hyatt loyalty program. Much of the activity is off-market, Hoplamazian continued. “In fact, pretty much everything that we're looking at and engaged in right now is not part of an auction process.”
A Hyatt spokesperson released a statement on the story: “As a matter of policy, we don’t comment on questions of this nature. We remain committed to asset-light growth through both organic growth and strategic acquisitions but have nothing new to share at this time.”