A massive €30 million bailout grant has been approved today, Tuesday, December 27, by the Spanish Government. It will go to the Soho Boutique group, which has 34 hotels spread across the country.

The hotel chain is led by its president, Gonzalo Armenteros, a local Malaga businessman. They had requested this loan from the Government, and now the green light has been given by the Cabinet. A participatory loan for the amount of €24 million will make up the largest part of the package, with an ordinary loan of €6 million making up the balance.

In 2014, Soho Boutique opened its first establishment in Spain in Malaga, and in 2020, just six years later, the company was already ranked in 16th position out of the big hotel companies in the country. They currently employ more than 600 people, and have the largest number of hotel beds in the capital.

Plans to expand the business into Mexico, and the US, had to be put on hold with the advent of the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, efforts have been concentrated on the domestic market.

Their hotels are located in a wide sphere of the Spanish map, including Valencia, Asturias, Salamanca, Madrid, Caceres, Cordoba, Sevilla, Cadiz, and of course, Malaga.

“Finally. We are very happy. The news has come at the most opportune moment when the Omicron variant is wreaking havoc in the form of cancellations in the middle of the Christmas season”, commented an elated Gonzalo Armenteros after the excellent news was announced.

The chain has 27 of its 34 hotels in Andalucia, including recent openings in Castillo de Santa Catalina, La Equitativa, and the latest in Sevilla.

Speaking of the aid package from the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), Armenteros said it would, “help protect the company, and the more than 3,000 direct and indirect jobs at stake. We are a strategic company in the tourism sector in Andalucia, where we concentrate 27 of our hotels”, as reported by surinenglish.com.

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