IHG Hotels & Resorts has acquired RubyA brand of high -end urban lifestyle with 20 hotels in Europe, for around $ 116 million.
The Ruby operating company, Ruby Group, is not included in the acquisition and will continue to exploit existing hotels of the brand as well as to develop new properties within the framework of the franchise agreements with IHG.
Founded in 2013, Ruby, based in Munich, has nine hotels in German cities, notably Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart. The brand also has three hotels in the United Kingdom, three in Austria, two in Switzerland and each in Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands.
According to IHG, the acquisition marks its foray into the growing hotel segment “Urban Micro”, characterized by space saving conceptions in premium city locations, as well as “operational normalization and automation” in the form of kiosks self-service recording and other efficiency.
The other brands of the segment include MoxyCitizenm, free hand and yotel.
“The Urban Micro Space is a model adapted to the franchise with an attractive owner’s economy, and we see excellent opportunities not only to extend the solid European basis of Ruby, but also quickly take this fascinating brand in the Americas and through Asia, “said Elie Maalouf, CEO of IHG.
Ruby currently has 10 hotels in its pipeline across Europe, including the upcoming openings in Edinburgh, Marseille, Rome and Stockholm.
IHG said it expects the brand to be ready for development in the United States by the end of the year and targets the expansion to 120 hotels during the next decade and 250 during of the next 20 years.
Ruby is the 20th brand of IHG.