Nine UK hotels leased to the Hilton hospitality chain have been sold by court-appointed administrators for £246 mln (€282 mln), Bloomberg reports.
The hotels were formerly part of the Zinc portfolio previously owned by Iranian-British businessman Vincent Tchenguiz, which were put into administration after his Consensus Business Group was unable to find a buyer. The most valuable asset in the portfolio, the Kensington Hilton in London, was sold for £261.5 mln to a company controlled by hotelier Bakir Cola.
Bloomberg cited filings by the administrators which stated that the remaining properties had been bought by companies controlled by Vivion Investments Sarl, whose investors include Israeli property tycoon Amir Dayan, according to sources close to the deal.
Savills plc and JLL Inc. were hired to manage the sale of the remaining properties. Tchenguiz had failed in 2017 to dispose of the entire portfolio for a price of around £600 mln.
'The disposal of the Zinc portfolio is indicative of the unabated appetite for UK hotels, particularly those with attractive lease terms and long-term value enhancement opportunities,' Rob Stapleton, a director at Savills, told Bloomberg.
