London-based investment firm Tristan Capital Partners is set to acquire budget hotel brand easyHotel in a deal reportedly worth some €200 million.

As part of the transaction, the UK fund will acquire 100 per cent of shares in easyHotel ¡°for a new clean ownership¡±.

The budget hotel chain, part of the easyGroup, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2014 and, since 2019, has been majority owned by equity funds ICAMAP and Ivanho¨¦ Cambridge, who took the company private in 2020.

EasyGroup chairman and founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who currently owns 17.4 per cent of the hotel company, welcomed the move.

¡°As is normal with the cycle of private equity funds, the time has come for them to sell their shares to a new owner,¡± he said in a statement.

EasyHotel CEO, Karim Malak, added the deal ¡°will support our expansion at a time when we are seeing a record number of enquiries from potential partners eager to open new easyHotels¡±.

Kristian Smyth, managing director of investments at Tristan Capital Partners, said the budget hotel sector is ¡°a core part¡± of the firm¡¯s platform, and an area where it expects to ¡°materially expand¡± its existing footprint.

Following recent expansion, easyHotel currently operates close to 50 properties, including some 4,900 rooms, across the UK and Europe.