Pro-invest Australia hospitality property fund closes at A$300m

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Pro-invest’s Australian Hospitality Opportunity Fund II, a property fund backed by the Australian government’s green bank, has raised A$300m (€176m).

The asset manager said it has closed its second fund after securing the capital commitments from a diverse group of institutional investors.

In October last year, IPE Real Assets reported that Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) had backed the fund with a A$50m investment. The green bank joined around a dozen domestic and global investors, including a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund, German and Swiss institutions participating in the fund, which invests in hotels in Australia and New Zealand.

Pro-invest said capital from Fund I, the predecessor fund, was used to roll-out a portfolio of Holiday Inn Express hotels, adding that Fund II’s A$300m commitments will be used to expand the Holiday Inn Express footprint in Australia and New Zealand as well as tapping into the upper mid-scale segment.

Fund II can also be deployed to reposition existing assets, targeting opportunities presented by the current market environment, the manager said.

Pro-invest said Fund II has already secured four sites, which will see the development of close to 1,000 rooms in Auckland, Sydney and the Sunshine Coast under the Holiday Inn Express and voco brands.

Ronald Barrott, CEO of Pro-invest Group, said: “We are pleased to have raised such a significant fund, with a diverse group of international and domestic investors, in an otherwise challenging period. We are seeing – and are well-positioned to capture – emerging opportunities across dislocated markets.

“In particular, we anticipate more distressed opportunities arising over the next 6 to 12 months. As an integrated platform combining hotel investment, development and operational capabilities, we are uniquely placed to optimise these opportunities in existing, new and redevelopment assets and generate significant value for investors.”

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