INVESTMENT Next Story Group Chairman, Patrick Imbardelli, Vista Hospitality Group Chair, Tony Ryan, and Pro-invest Group’s CEO and Deputy Chair APAC, Jan Smits
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PRO-INVEST IS RAMPING UP AUSTRALASIAN INVESTMENT THROUGH A JOINT VENTURE WITH NEXT STORY GROUP. PRO-INVEST GROUP CEO AND DEPUTY CHAIR APAC, JAN SMITS, SPOKE TO RUTH HOGAN ABOUT PLANS TO GROW THE SHARED PORTFOLIO OF BRANDS.
Next Story Group’s Sage Hotel Ringwood offers a bright and colourful lobby to welcome guests
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ro-invest and Next Story Group have joined forces to establish a new hospitality management company, Vista Hospitality Group Australasia. Combining seven hotel brands, 11 properties and over 700 staff, the joint venture will utilise expertise from both businesses to offer a suite of hospitality resources. The services offered through this “one-stop shop” model will include development planning and asset management, franchising and revenue generation modelling and tailored hotel operations for owners and partners. “Pro-invest Group’s investment in this region means we’re strategically well placed to bring this exciting partnership to fruition with Next Story Group to own a new space in
HM The Business of Accommodation
the market,” said Pro-invest Group Founder and Chairman, Ronald Barrott. “By leveraging our commercially driven revenue platforms and leading ESG practices, together with white label opportunities and combined brands and resources means we’ve created a dynamic new offering for owners and partners and a platform for the next phase of growth in Australia and New Zealand.”
COLLABORATE AND CONQUER
Pro-invest Group is Asia Pacific’s largest hotel investment and acquisition business with $2 billion worth of assets including the Sebel, voco, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo and Kimpton brands. The Group’s wide-ranging capabilities means that there are myriad opportunities to advance its presence in Australia and New Zealand through this joint venture, as Pro-invest Group’s CEO and Deputy Chair APAC, Jan Smits, explained. “Within the Pro-invest platform, we build hotels, we operate hotels, we asset manage hotels, we look after the whole day-to-day operations … we are an A-Z integrated platform,” Smits told HM. “Link that in with what the Next Story Group have been doing, where they have built a very innovative platform and portfolio of brands in the full-service side of the business across Australia, and you create a wide-level management company that can go across all spectrums.