From financial crisis to a successful hotel property company
Founded in 1995
Pandox has its origin in the Swedish financial and property crisis of the early 1990s. The Swedish government (through Securum) created the company, with the mission to take over and structure Securum hotel portfolio and prepare it for sale.
The original portfolio
Initially, Pandox consisted of 18 properties and three small operations. All the hotels were situated in Sweden, most of them were small, located in secondary locations and in bad condition.
Listing on the stock exchange
Pandox was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1997. The business model was new and unproven. The company’s portfolio was valued at SEK 1.3 billion, with a market value of SEK 520 million, and it had 4,000 new shareholders.
From this point, an active development work started. Pandox underwent massive expansion, taking over larger hotels in attractive locations while disposing of smaller hotels.
Internationalisation
In 2000, Pandox expanded its geographical reach to Northern Europe through the acquisition of Hotellus with 16 hotel properties.
Reprivatised in 2004
The company was bought out of the exchange in 2004 by long term investors Eiendomsspar AS and Sundt AS.
Stronger position in Europe
After the privatisation, the acquisition speed increased and a number of major hotels in cities such as Berlin, Brussels, Basel, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Malmö were acquired. These transactions reinforced the position of Pandox as one of the leading hotel property players in Europe.
Expansion to North America
In 2007-2008, Pandox continued its international expansion with two acquisitions in Montreal
Strong growth and leading player in Europe
In autumn 2010, Pandox acquired Norgani Hotels with a portfolio of 73 hotels in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. After the acquisition, Pandox is now one of Europe’s leading pure hotel property companies with regards to geographic spread, number of hotels and brands. All together the company started in 1995, Pandox has carried out acquisitions worth SEK 20 billion, equaling transactions of 174 hotels. The value of the Company’s hotel property portfolio amounted to approximately SEK 24 billion
at the end of 2011 – which implies that the value has increased about 20 times since the
Company was formed. This has been achieved by an active ownership of existing hotels, improved knowledge of the industry and profitable acquisitions.
At the end of 2011, Pandox had a total of 118 hotel properties and one congress and fair centre. Four transactions were completed in 2011: The hotel property Park Inn by Radisson, Solna was acquired. The hotels Scandic Bromma, First Linköping and Scandic Luosto in northern Finland were sold.