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The El Palace hotel, the subject of a long-term exploitation project
The transfer of ownership was formalized on August 1, 2025
The El Palace hotel in Barcelona (Spain), returned to Algeria last summer, is the subject of a long-term exploitation project. The Algerian State, through the National Investment Fund (FNI), plans to ensure the management of the El Palace hotel in Barcelona (Spain) taken over from businessman Ali Haddad as part of a grant in payment, over a period of thirty years, reported the Spanish media Crónica Global, according to which the staff received guarantees regarding the maintenance of positions.
Algeria, noted the Spanish media, promises to operate the Palace Hotel in Barcelona as a 30-year project. This perspective is part of a stable management logic, aiming to enhance the value of an asset recovered in a legal context. The local management of the hotel explained that no positions would be eliminated and that the teams would remain in place, according to the same media. Noting that these assurances aim to guarantee continuity of service, an important point for an internationally known establishment. During a transitional period, daily management will be carried out by the managers already in office.
On a legal level, specified the Spanish media, including Crónica Global and the newspaper ARA, the transfer of ownership was formalized on August 1, 2025. The notarial deed registered in the land register designates the FNI as owner, even if certain administrative procedures are still in progress. Noting that dation in payment, a mechanism by which a debtor hands over property to settle a debt, allowed Ali Haddad to transfer the hotel.
Recalling that this operation takes place within the framework of the businessman’s financial commitments to the Algerian State, the same Spanish media note that this is distinct from confiscation. The establishment, former Ritz de Barcelona, nevertheless remains associated with a mortgage of around 26 million euros taken out with the Santander bank. The FNI will have to manage this charge, which is one of the elements to take into account in the takeover of the hotel.
The El Palace affair is part of a broader file of judicial cooperation between Algiers and Madrid on the recovery of ill-gotten assets. Since 2023, Algeria has affirmed its desire to repatriate or regain control of assets acquired by oligarchs prosecuted for corruption. The Barcelona hotel, purchased in 2011 by Ali Haddad, was one of the most visible properties in this set. With the clarification provided by Crónica Global on the long-term management project and on the guarantees given to employees, the El Palace file is now entering an operational phase.
At the end of last October, the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia revealed that the El Palace hotel in Barcelona had become the property of the Algerian state in the recovery of confiscated property. “The Palace of Barcelona, the historic Ritz, the oldest luxury hotel in the city, has been owned by the Algerian state for several weeks,” said the Spanish newspaper.
Rabah M.