tl;dr – From a piece of sushi to the world!
I’m profiling a few hotels chains I believe would make for intriguing acquisitions and today I wanted to take a look at Nobu. Nobu Hotels is an upscale brand that has been rapidly expanding in recent years. The chain is part of Nobu Hospitality, the entity founded by famed sushi chef Nobu Matsuhisa, actor Robert De Niro, and film producer Meir Teper. The history goes back to the days when Deniro used to eat at Matsuhisa’s then fledgling outpost in Los Angeles. After suggesting Nobu open a location in Tribeca, and subsequently reapproaching him with the idea a few years later, a partnership was forged that saw the trio scale Nobu’s food to great heights. There are over 50 Nobu restaurants worldwide. Restaurateur Drew Nieporent is an operating partner in the restaurant part of the hospitality group.
Nobu expanded into other hospitality ventures, namely hotels and residences. I’ve never stayed at a Nobu property. Nonetheless, the chain piques my curiosity for two main reasons – it is growing aggressively, and this feels like a critical juncture for determining its next chapter. First, let’s talk about growth: As of today, there are 19 open Nobu hotels and 27 planned (or in-development) locations.
Nobu’s open locations include:
- Atlanta
- Atlantic City
- Barcelona
- Chicago
- Ibiza Bay
- Las Vegas
- London Portman Square
- Los Cabos
- Malibu
- Manila
- Marbella
- Marrakech
- Miami Beach
- New Orleans
- Palo Alto
- Roma
- San Sebastián
- Toronto
- Warsaw
The properties in development are:
- Nobu Maldives’ Laamu Atoll
- Nobu Barbuda
- Abuda Dhabi
- Baku
- Bangkok
- Bangkok (Plaza Athenee Nobu Hotel and Spa)
- Cairo (New Cairo)
- Cairo (West Cairo)
- North Coast Egypt
- Danang
- Saigon
- Hamburg
- Al Khobar
- Krakow
- Lisbon
- Madrid
- Maldives
- Machester
- Al Marjan Island
- Montenegro
- Muscat
- Nashville
- New York
- Orlando
- Punta Cana
- Sofia
- Tulum
- Varna
Looking at that list – that’s quite a global spread of properties and an interesting mix of ‘that max sense’ type of cities and ‘oh, wow, that’s interesting.’
As far as this being a critical juncture, Nobu’s aforementioned founders – Chef Nobu Matsuhisa and Robert DeNiro have an average age of 79.5. (Teper’s age is unclear). I’m sure there’s a significant ownership percentage in the chain by outside investors (reportedly, In 2015, Crown Resorts bought a 20% stake for $100 million, leaving the remaining 80% to be held by De Niro, Matsuhisa, and Teper) but this feels like the time at which folks start thinking about legacy – potentially closing a chapter with a ending they can be proud of. I could totally see the entire hospitality group being sold or divided up into segments – hotels, restaurants, other ventures – and then sold piecemeal. A growing chain that seems to be thriving would likely be an attractive asset to acquire.
And of course, there’s the segmentation. While often viewed as luxury to many, to me, Nobu Hotels exudes my least favorite industry-word – ‘lifestyle’. Putting my own opinion aside, hotel execs seemingly can’t get enough of that segment. Should Nobu – a brand that can wear both the luxury and lifestyle hats – ever bet up for sale, I’d envision that hotel execs at the door like so:
Who would/should purchase them, you ask? More on that in a bit!
