Costa Mesa, CA—Burba Hotel Network (BHN)—developer and organizer of hotel and tourism investment conferences—announced that its hotel investment event portfolio has been acquired by Northstar Travel Group, an information, event, marketing solutions and technology provider for the global travel and meetings industry. This acquisition was completed in collaboration with BHN’s partners, including the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA).
BHN produces 10 hospitality investment events and conferences around the world, including in Los Angeles, Miami, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, and Mumbai. The acquisition makes events Northstar’s largest segment. The BHN team will continue to run the BHN events working with Northstar Travel Group. As part of the acquisition, Northstar and AHLA have entered into a long-term partnership agreement to co-produce the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) events in the US.
Jim Burba, founder and president of BHN, commented: “Finding the right strategic and cultural partner that offered new capabilities over a range of areas—event management, digital media and database marketing, to name a few—was very important as we continue to scale our business and offer greater educational and marketing offerings to the global hotel investment community. I have known the leadership team of Northstar for many years, including Tom Kemp, Alicia Evanko, and Bob Sullivan, and we are very excited to be working with Northstar.”
Northstar anticipates that it will be able to leverage its databases, relationships, media properties, and domain expertise to help grow the BHN event portfolio, which currently includes: ALIS in Los Angeles; ALIS Law in Los Angeles; ALIS Summer Update; Alternative Ownership Conference Asia Pacific (AOCAP) in Singapore; Caribbean Hotel & Resort Investment Summit (CHRIS) in Miami; Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP) in Hong Kong; HICAP UPDATE in Singapore; Hotel Investment Forum India (HIFI) in Mumbai; Hotel Opportunities Latin America (HOLA) conference in Miami; and Hotel Investment Conference Europe (Hot.E) in London.
“We are thrilled to add the Burba hospitality events to our growing portfolio of global events serving the travel and hospitality industries,” said Tom Kemp, chairman and CEO of Northstar Travel Group. “We have known Jim Burba and Bob Hayes for many years and we believe that the combination of BHN and Northstar is a great strategic and cultural fit with our company. BHN has a substantial event portfolio and this will be the largest acquisition in Northstar’s history. With the addition of BHN, events now become the largest segment of Northstar’s multi-platform solutions serving the global travel industry.”
Houlihan Lokey represented BHN and its partners in the transaction. Paul Hastings LLP provided legal advice to BHN, Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC provided legal advice to AHLA. Macquarie Capital provided financing for Northstar, and Jones Day served as legal advisor to Northstar.
Photo caption (left to right): Burba Hotel Network’s cofounders, Jim Burba, president, and Bob Hayes, vice president.
