Hyatt Hotels Corp. has closed on a $1.98 billion all-cash sale of the real estate portfolio previously acquired from Playa Hotels & Resorts.
As announced on June 30, the buyer is Tortuga Resorts, a real estate and asset-management company focused on luxury beachfront resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean. Tortuga is backed by KSL Capital Partners and Rodina.
Hyatt can receive an additional earnout of $143 million if certain operating thresholds are met. Hyatt has retained $200 million of preferred equity in Tortuga in connection with the transaction.
The Playa real estate portfolio originally involved 15 all-inclusive properties in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. As previously disclosed, Hyatt in September sold one of the resorts in Mexico's Playa del Carmen to a separate third-party buyer for $22 million. Between the completion of this earlier sale and the Tortuga transaction, Hyatt has sold the entire Playa portfolio for a total of $2 billion.
Concurrent with the real estate sale, Hyatt and Tortuga have entered into 50-year management agreements for 13 of the 14 resorts in the portfolio. The remaining property is subject to a separate contractual arrangement, Hyatt said.
Javier Aguila, president of Hyatt's Inclusive Collection, called the Tortuga deal "transformative."
"With this transaction, we've secured long-term management agreements for a portfolio of exceptional resorts that reflect our commitment to excellence," Aguilla said.
Tortuga CEO Leo Schlesinger said the transaction establishes Tortuga as a leader in "luxury beachfront hospitality across Mexico and the Caribbean. We are excited to deepen our partnership with Hyatt."
Hyatt said the sale to Tortuga "demonstrates Hyatt's commitment to its asset-light business model and to delivering value to shareholders." It said proceeds from the sale will be used to repay the loan that funded a portion of the Playa acquisition.