UK-based fund manager Benson Elliot has teamed up with Chicago-based peer Walton Street Capital and French hospitality group Algonquin to acquire a pan-European portfolio of high-end hotels for €420 mln.
UK-based fund manager Benson Elliot has teamed up with Chicago-based peer Walton Street Capital and French hospitality group Algonquin to acquire a pan-European portfolio of high-end hotels for €420 mln.
The joint venture partners purchased the Prime Europe Hotels portfolio from New York-listed Host Hotels & Resorts.
The eight freehold properties total 2,308 rooms in Venice, Paris, Milan, Rome, Warsaw, Nuremberg and Brussels. The portfolio was assembled between 2006 and 2011.
The individual assets are The Pullman, Paris Bercy; The Westin Europa and Regina, Venice; The Westin Palace, Milan; The Sheraton, Rome; The Sheraton, Warsaw; Le Méridien Grand Hotel, Nuremberg; and, The Marriot Executive Apartments and Renaissance Hotel, both in Brussels.
The buyers said that the assets have undergone substantial investment in recent years but that there are still 'significant opportunities' to add further value through targeted asset management initiatives.
Robert Bloom, senior principal at Walton Street: 'This portfolio represents a high-quality collection of full-service branded assets that is being acquired at both an attractive yield and significant discount to replacement cost, at what we believe is an opportunistic point in the investment cycle.'
The JV was advised on the transaction by Paul Hastings and Deloitte.
JV partners
London-based Benson Elliot is an independent private equity real estate fund manager, with over €1 bn of equity under management. Its pan-European investment platform has transacted in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Central Europe and Scandinavia. The firm is led by Marc Mogull, Trish Barrigan and Joseph De Leo.
Walton Street Capita is a private equity real estate investment firm based . Since its founding in 1994, the firm has invested in or committed to invest $7.5 bn of equity in more than 300 separate transactions in US and international real estate, including the acquisition or development of 69 hotels.
Algonquin operates 41 hotels and more than 7,000 rooms across Europe.
