€350m will be allocated to the creation of a property company to open 10 to 15 new addresses over the next three years, while the remaining €30m will be used to accelerate the brand's development.
Founded in 2007, the Experimental Group is a French hotel group that began its history with the Experimental Cocktail Club in Paris; it is now present in 6 countries with 20 establishments, employing a total of more than 600 people. Among its addresses, the group owns: the Experimental Cocktail Club (Paris then London), the Grand Pigalle Hotel (Paris), the Hôtel des Grands Boulevards (Paris), the Balagan (Paris), Il Pallazzo Experimental (Venice) and the Grand Hôtel Montesol (Ibiza). Continuing its development 15 years after its foundation, the Experimental Group is raising €380 million in funds.
This fundraising will take place with a fund managed by Brookfield Asset Management, a Canadian asset management company with a global portfolio of $650bn. In addition, Bpifrance is acquiring a stake in the company this year and Jean Moueix, the heir to Château Petrus, will increase his participation by investing through his personal holding company Imagine.
Brookfield Asset Management will thus acquire the position of investor in the group's activities by creating a €350 million property company that will carry out hotel acquisitions in Europe, thus enabling the Experimental Group to focus its expertise on the operation of establishments by keeping the operational management. Ten to fifteen acquisitions are planned over the next few years for the group, which is already present in France and abroad. The first projections are the opening of a hotel in Ibiza in the summer of 2022, and a second in Saint-Moritz the following year in the summer of 2023.
In addition, €30m will be allocated to developing the Experimental Group brand and its operational capabilities. In particular, the group intends to strengthen its workforce by creating 1,400 new positions around the world.
This fundraising marks a turning point in our development and validates the choice of our positioning, which we will continue to deploy in France and internationally. It also gives us the opportunity to do even more of what we like and what we are appreciated for: cultivating our spirit of discovery, a key value of the Experimental Group that we share with our clients and our teams. This raise also represents a strong and positive signal for the entire sector and shows that the hotel industry is set to be stronger and more dynamic than ever in the years to come.
Romée, Pierre-Charles and Olivier, co-founders of the Experimental Group
