Hotel101 expands to Saudi Arabia

Hotel101 Libis

Hotel101 Global, the homegrown condotel chain of developer DoubleDragon Corp., is widening its international footprint via a P137.5-billion debut in the Middle East following a partnership with a Saudi Arabia-based investment firm.

In a stock exchange filing on Thursday, DoubleDragon said Hotel101 had inked a joint venture partnership agreement with Horizon Group to build 10,000 rooms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Home to nearly one million Filipinos, Saudi Arabia will be the third international destination of Hotel101 after Spain and Japan.

According to DoubleDragon, Hotel101 branches will be set up across five locations: Medina, Riyadh, Jeddah, Abha and Alula.

“We see tremendous opportunities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, given the high growth in tourism, both domestic and international,” Hotel101 CEO Hannah Yulo-Luccini said in a disclosure.

“We believe Saudi Arabia will be one of the most exciting markets for Hotel101 globally,” Luccini added.

This comes as part of the condotel chain’s goal of developing one million rooms across 100 countries, 25 of which have already been identified for its initial international expansion.

Sia earlier confirmed they would also build a Hotel101 project in the United States.

Nasdaq debut

This year, Hotel101 is set to officially list on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Stock Exchange, a first for a Filipino-owned company. Hotel101 in February filed and submitted to the US Securities and Exchange commission a registration statement for its $2.3-billion listing on the American bourse under the ticker “HBNB.”

In the first quarter, DoubleDragon saw its earnings balloon by 245 percent to P2.05 billion on gains from its international Hotel101 projects, allowing it to breach the P100-billion equity mark.

Its top line more than doubled to P4.45 billion, owing to a 69-percent surge in unit sales to P417.4 million at Hotel101.

DoubleDragon expects to generate P27.2 billion in foreign currency revenues from its international projects, particularly Hotel101-Madrid and Hotel101-Niseko.