The company that runs Belmond Charleston Place is being sold to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which calls itself the world’s leading luxury group.

LVMH has agreed to buy Belmond Ltd. for $25 a share in cash, the companies announced Friday. The price gives Belmond an equity value of $2.6 billion, and the deal carries an enterprise value, which includes debt, of $3.2 billion.

Belmond manages the 434-room hotel on Meeting Street and holds a 19.9% equity interest in it, according to Belmond’s most recent annual report. It runs the hotel under an exclusive long-term contract and has made loans to it. Because of those ties, Belmond includes the hotel’s results in its own financial statements.

The companies expect the deal to close in the first half of 2019. It needs approval from 75% of the votes cast by Belmond’s shareholders and antitrust approvals in certain foreign jurisdictions, according to a Belmond securities filing.

The announcement did not mention Charleston Place or any plans for it.

A global collection

Belmond owns, part-owns or manages 46 hotel, restaurant, train and river cruise properties in 24 countries, including Hotel Cipriani in Venice and the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express train, according to the announcement. In the 12 months ended Sept. 30, it recorded revenue of $572 million and adjusted EBITDA of $140 million.

LVMH, whose brands include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Moët & Chandon and Sephora, already runs Cheval Blanc hotels. It said Belmond would be an ideal complement to them.

“This acquisition will significantly increase LVMH’s presence in the ultimate hospitality world,” said Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s chairman and chief executive.

Roland Hernandez, chairman of Belmond’s board, said the board chose the deal after a strategic review that “attracted broad and deep interest from a wide range of real estate and lodging companies, sovereign wealth institutions and other financial buyers around the world.”

Belmond President and Chief Executive Roeland Vos said the sale “is an exciting development for all stakeholders, including our employees.”

Charleston’s place in the portfolio

Charleston Place opened in 1986. It is one of six hotels in North America that Belmond counts among its owned hotels, according to the annual report. Besides its rooms, the hotel has two restaurants, a grand ballroom and other banquet and conference space, a spa, a fitness center, a rooftop pool and a shopping arcade of 22 shops leased to other businesses.

The hotel has been one of the company’s bright spots. Its revenue grew $6 million, or 8%, in 2017, helped by more group business and a sports bar that opened in July 2016, Belmond reported. Its adjusted EBITDA rose 13% that year.

The hotel finished a three-year renovation of its guest rooms in December 2015. It renovated its reception area and spa in 2017, and in December 2017 it began renovating the Charleston Grill restaurant.

In its third-quarter report in November, Belmond said Charleston Place was benefiting from the popularity of the destination and the extensive refurbishment work completed in recent years.

The same report showed the hotel’s exposure to storms. Belmond said Charleston Place lost $2.1 million in revenue in September when the city was evacuated ahead of Hurricane Florence, which left the hotel’s quarterly revenue flat from a year earlier. Even so, its adjusted EBITDA improved by $1.1 million in the quarter.

Separate debt

The hotel’s borrowing is kept apart from Belmond’s. Charleston Center LLC, the company that owns the hotel, has its own non-recourse financing, including a $112 million loan due in August 2019, according to the annual report.

Charleston Place also owns the neighboring historic Riviera Theater, which has been remodeled as conference space and shops, according to the annual report. The hotel created and coordinates the Charleston Chefs’ “Feed the Need” program, in which local hotels, restaurants and caterers provide weekly meals in food shelters for up to 500 people, Belmond said.