German lender Aareal Bank has provided €215 mln in cross-border financing to three investors for the €420 mln purchase of a European hotel portfolio.
German lender Aareal Bank has provided €215 mln in cross-border financing to three investors for the €420 mln purchase of a European hotel portfolio.
The borrowers are UK-based fund manager Benson Elliot, Chicago-based peer Walton Street Capital and French hospitality group Algonquin.
The three joint venture partners announced in late October that they were buying the Prime Europe Hotels portfolio from New York-listed Host Hotels & Resorts for €420 mln. The eight freehold properties total 2,308 rooms in Venice, Paris, Milan, Rome, Warsaw, Nuremberg and Brussels.
Aareal Bank acted as lender, arranger and agent for the five-year facility, and was also retained as hedge counterparty and security agent.
'With this complex transaction, we were able to provide our client with a tailor-made financing for the cross-border hotel portfolio. Aareal Bank thus substantiates its competence as an international provider of property finance, with proven expertise in hotel financings', said Christof Winkelmann, managing director of special property finance at Aareal Bank.