New movements in the fight to become the king of Ibiza clubs

After two years with levels of economic activity lower than the pre-pandemic years, the tourism sector “is recovering a lot at the international level”, indicate the same sources, which also includes nightclubs and restaurants with cabaret shows, such as Lío, with stores in Eivissa and Mykonos (two of the islands where Pachá concentrates a large part of its business and which are reporting good figures). After two years without activity due to the health pandemic (except in businesses that could open, such as its hotels and restaurants), Pachá is returning to pre-coronavirus profitability levels.

The return of the clubs to Eivissa

Between the last weekend of April and the first days of May, mythical nightclubs such as Amnesia, Pachá, Ushuaïa, Hï or DC-10 held their opening parties, events whose impact was estimated at 30 million euros and the arrival of some 30,000 tourists. “We can talk about 2 million euros in tickets alone,” José Luis Benítez, manager of Leisure in Ibiza, explained to elDiario.es, which accounts for the capital that some of the most famous clubs in the world move. Benítez also emphasized the money that moves associated with leisure, since tourists “have to take public or private transport, eat in bars or restaurants and choose a hotel or vacation establishment.” In terms of employment, he estimated at 2,000 direct workers -in the sector- and between 800 or 900 indirect ones.

The other side of the coin is the discomfort that leisure generates, especially in those people who live around discos and dance halls, especially in what has to do with noise, the consumption of alcoholic beverages , narcotic substances or prostitution. As far as noise is concerned, some residents of Sant Josep (Eivissa) have taken the Town Hall to court for “inactivity”, a lawsuit they have won twice.

“Selling Pachá was the worst mistake of my life”

The operation that Trilantic Capital Partners has launched, with the intention of looking for a new investment partner that will allow it to expand internationally in iconic destinations such as Mallorca, London, Miami or Dubai, takes place only five years after the investment fund bought 87% of the shares of Grupo Pachá for 350 million euros, after an agreement signed with the founder and former owner of the group, Ricardo Urgell, who holds 10% of the shares (the remaining 3% is divided between MCH and GPF Capital, Spanish venture capital firms).

“Selling Pachá was the worst mistake of my life”, explained Urgell in an interview in Global Chronicle. “It makes me feel bad every day when I walk on the street, the people I meet tell me: Ricardo, Pachá is no longer what he was. and that makes me feel like a shotit is as if you speak ill of a son or a daughter to a father”, lamented Urgell in statements to the same medium, at the beginning of 2020. Later, in an interview on the local television of Eivissa and Formentera (TEF), collected by the Newspaper of Ibiza and Formentera, the Catalan businessman explained that when he sold Pachá he was 80 years old and his children were not willing to continue with the business, due to the sacrifice that it implied. In that same interview, he charged hard against the leisure that exists on the island, defending the Eivissa of the 70s (Urgell, in Eivissa, built Pachá in 1973, in the midst of the effervescence of the hippie movement).

However, the businessman who completely changed the concept of leisure in Eivissa, starting in 2010, is Abel Matutes Prats, president of Palladium Hotel Group, and son of Abel Matutes Juan, owner of the group and former Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first cabinet by Jose Maria Aznar. The change came with the introduction of the luxury offer in its hotels, being Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel, in 2011, and Ushuaïa Tower, in 2012, the crown jewels. Since 2012, with the new tourism law designed by the Minister of Tourism of the Balearic Government, Carlos Delgado -with the PP of José Ramón Bauzá at the head of the Government-, hotels and restaurants can carry out “complementary activities and services”, which, without a doubt, Ushuaïa has taken advantage of, but also many other establishments on the island, such as the Destino Pachá Resort.

“Urgell felt forced to open the Destino and hold daytime parties because Matutes began to do so as well. Ricardo (Urgell), deep down, complained that this forced him to follow the same path because, of course, ‘you can’t miss the train’. He always said that he would have left Pachá as he was, but that the competition ‘forced’ him to continue growing, so as not to be left behind, ”he explains to elDiario. is a person who has known the Eivissa leisure industry since the 80s.

Ibizan nightclubs continue to move “capital”

The movement of Trilantic and Pachá is not the only one that has taken place in the sector in recent years. Grupo Empresas Matutes (which already owned 45% of the shares) acquired 55% of the shares (owned by José María Etxaniz) of the Privilege nightclub -which this year remains closed- for an approximate amount of 20 million euros, as published by Diario de Ibiza last June 22.

The Space nightclub – one of the most emblematic on the island at the time – which operated on land owned by Matutes, closed in 2016, after the group did not renew the lease to businessman Pepe Roselló, who has historically maintained a dispute with Abel Matutes Juan, owner of Palladium Hotel Group. After the closure of Space, the nightclub was renovated and converted into the current Hï, located just opposite Ushuaïa, in the heart of the entertainment area of ​​Platja d’en Bossa (Sant Josep).