ActivumSG has made its debut in the UK hospitality real estate market by acquiring an asset in Greater London.
The pan-European real estate private equity investment manager’s ActivumSG Fund VII fund has acquired the Sutton Point hotel-led mixed-use asset from an unnamed Irish family office for £21m (€25.2m).
Following completion of the acquisition, the non-hospitality components of the scheme, comprising residential units, retail space and freehold land, were sold in separate transactions with the ActivumSG fund retaining the two core hospitality assets – a 99-key Ibis hotel and a 59-key Adagio aparthotel.
Sutton Point, located adjacent to Sutton train station, was originally developed between 2019 and 2020.
James de Lusignan, UK MD at ActivumSG, said: “Sutton Point represented a unique opportunity to acquire a recently developed, high-quality asset at significantly below replacement cost.
“The complexity of this transaction would have dissuaded many other buyers, but we identified significant unlocked potential through our collective skillset and local, in-country presence.”
Saul Goldstein, founder and CEO, ActivumSG, said: “We kept our capital dry in anticipation that the market would soon present compelling opportunities where you could acquire fundamentally sound assets at attractive prices.
“This is one of them. The hotel-led aspect of the site was a big draw for us, as the hospitality sector has been one of our long-held conviction calls in Europe, and we are actively investigating a number of similar opportunities in the UK, which remains a core market for us.”
ActivumSG said it worked with Global Hospitality Investment on the transaction.
James Gibbs, MD and head of Europe at Global Hospitality Investment, said: “Sutton Point exemplifies our ability to collaborate with a market-leading private equity firm to source and execute on highly complex hospitality-led investments and is a prime example of a great asset with an impaired balance sheet.
“Immediate value was created through the back-to-back sales on the non-hospitality component whilst there remains significant additional upside to unlock via optimising hotel operations.”
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