Hotel group expands into Africa and adds first South African hotel to its collection

Minor International Chairman & Founder, William Heinecke, and The Cavaleros Group Chief Executive Officer, Penny Cavaleros. Picture; Supplied

Minor International Chairman & Founder, William Heinecke, and The Cavaleros Group Chief Executive Officer, Penny Cavaleros. Picture; Supplied

Published Apr 15, 2024

Share

A hotel in Sandton is set to become part of a group of hotels managed by Minor Hotel’s NH Collection. This comes after Minor Hotels signed a strategic partnership with The Cavaleros Group to manage the hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa.

According to the international hotel owner, with more than 540 hotels in 56 countries around the world, managing this hotel will be the NH Collection’s first venture into South African territory.

“The signing represents the upcoming debut of Minor Hotels’ NH Collection brand on the African continent. From July 1st 2024 the group will manage the hotel in Sandton, the financial district of South Africa’s largest city,” said Minor Hotels.

The international hotel group said that the 29-key property will first operate as NH Sandton and subsequently, following an extensive refurbishment of the property, will be rebranded as NH Collection Sandton.

“This profound partnership between Minor Hotels and The Cavaleros Group secures the opportunity for Minor Hotels to pioneer their inaugural venture in South Africa, which is recognised as the second largest economy on the continent in terms of GDP and is a country which the hotel group is targeting for future development.

“Both Minor Hotels and The Cavaleros Group plan to foster a strong relationship, with the intention to partner together on future hospitality opportunities throughout the African continent,” said the international hotel group.

The Cavaleros Group is one of the largest privately-owned property groups in South Africa, with its core business being the investment and development of data centres, commercial, industrial, hospitality and retail properties, both locally and internationally, and is a leading and respected member of the local and international property industry, having assembled and growing a portfolio of institutional-quality assets.

Commenting on the strategic partnership, Penny Cavaleros, Chief Executive Officer of The Cavaleros Group, said the decision to partner with Minor Hotels for our Sandton Hotel and Africa was legendary for The Cavaleros Group.

“We, as a Group, identified certain asset classes within the property sector which we will aggressively pursue, hospitality being one with exponential growth into the African continent,” said Cavaleros.

She said that over the past 3 years they have engaged with all international hotel groups and concluded and recognised that Minor Hotels’ history, speed and culture is synonymous with our core Group values.

“We are currently considering several hospitality opportunities across the continent and have commenced our due diligence process,” said Cavaleros.

William Heinecke, Chairman and Founder of Minor International, parent company of Minor Hotels also reiterated Cavaleros’ sentiments and said that as a group, they thrilled to sign this strategic partnership with The Cavaleros Group to launch the NH Collection in South Africa, their first property in the country.

“This property will join our growing portfolio of hotels in Africa, where our Anantara, Avani and Elewana brands are already present. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with Penny and the Cavaleros team,” said the chairman.