Pace Holdings Corp. Completes Merger with Wlaya Hotels & Resorts

3/13/17

FAIRFAX, Va., and FORT WORTH, Texas, March 13, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pace Holdings Corp. a special-purpose acquisition company sponsored by an affiliate of TPG, today announced that it has completed its business combination with Playa Hotels & Resorts, a leading owner, operator, and developer of premier all-inclusive resorts. With the closing of this transaction, the combined company is named Playa Hotels & Resorts and its ordinary shares and warrants will trade on NASDAQ under the ticker symbols PLYA and PLYAW respectively beginning on Monday, March 13, 2017.

On December 13, 2016, Pace and Playa entered into a definitive transaction agreement. The transaction was approved by the shareholders of Pace on March 1, 2017, with over 99 percent of the voted shares voting in favor of the business combination. Pace’s board of directors had previously approved the business combination and recommended that its shareholders vote in favor of the proposal. The transaction immediately significantly strengthens Playa’s balance sheet by fully redeeming its preferred shares, and also provides significant additional capital for growth.

As previously announced, Playa CEO and Chairman Bruce Wardinski and his management team will continue to run the combined company. In connection with the closing of the transaction, TPG Partner and Pace President and CEO Karl Peterson has been appointed to the company’s board of directors. He is joined by Paul Hackwell, an investor in TPG’s Travel & Leisure and Retail Group, and Tom Klein, the former President, CEO, and member of the board of directors of Sabre Corporation. Other members of the board of directors include Stephen Haggerty, Daniel Hirsch, Hal Stanley Jones, Elizabeth Lieberman, Stephen Millham, Arturo Sarukhan.

About Playa Hotels & Resorts
Playa Hotels & Resorts is a leading owner, operator and developer of all-inclusive resorts in popular vacation destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean. Playa owns a portfolio consisting of 13 resorts (6,142 rooms) located on prime beachfront properties across Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica. In 2013, Playa entered into a strategic partnership with Hyatt to create two all-inclusive brands under the Hyatt name, Hyatt Ziva and Hyatt Zilara, of which Playa is the sole franchisee. Playa operates six Hyatt resorts across Mexico and Jamaica, one of which sits in the only private cove in Puerto Vallarta. Through its relationship with Playa, Hyatt is the first major U.S. brand to have entered the all-inclusive segment.

About Pace Holdings
Pace was formed with the purpose of acquiring a company that would be better suited to generate strong returns in the public markets while benefiting from the broader operational knowledge, resources and private equity heritage of TPG. This transaction builds on TPG’s efforts to grow its private equity offering by servicing different return profiles and product types. Since the start of 2014, the firm has launched several new products, including Pace, TPG Real Estate Finance Trust (“TRT”), TSL Europe and Arrow Ridge Capital.

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