AXA Real Estate bags European hotel portfolio

AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has acquired a portfolio of six hotels from Foncière des Murs (FdM) for EUR 132.9 mln in cash on behalf of a joint venture between an investment vehicle of an AXA Group insurance company, Caisse des Dépôts and Sogecap. The transaction, which was sourced off-market and put together by AXA Real Estate, is expected to complete before the year end.

The acquisition lifts the value of AXA Real Estate's hotel portfolio across Europe to around EUR 2 bn. It also expands the company´s existing relationship with Accor, which operates 70 of the hotels within the portfolio including the six acquired from FdM. In total, the portfolio now contains 99 hotels.

Four of the hotels purchased from FdM are located in the Paris area, one in Brussels and the other in Gent. With all leases linked to turnover, income from the portfolio is expected to grow in line with a strongly improving European hotel market, especially those catering for business travellers.

The transaction illustrates a growing trend for club deals, whereby investors can retain a stronger element of control and adopt a more targeted approach to investment, according to Antoine Jozan, Global Head of Investor Relations & Marketing at AXA Real Estate. 'This deal also shows AXA Real Estate’s ability to marry its expertise in sourcing transactions with an in-depth understanding of specific client requirements which enables it to put together a group of like-minded investors in a joint venture which can act quickly to take advantage to these opportunities. It also demonstrates our expertise in managing portfolios across a number of specialist real estate sectors and our ability to work with leading operating partners, such as Accor.'

AXA Real Estate is Europe’s leading real estate manager with EUR 39.4 bn of assets under management as of March 2011.