Blackstone Real Estate funds have completed the acquisition of hotel owner, operator and developer Village Hotels, from affiliates of travel and leisure investor KSL Capital Partners.
Previous UK news reports suggested a price tag of around £850 mln (€1 bn) for the chain.
Village Hotels owns and operates 33 assets with 4,400 rooms in large regional cities and suburban areas across the UK.
It offers traditional full-service hotel stays, fitness clubs, food and beverage outlets, and co-working spaces to UK business travellers, tourists, large groups, and local visitors.
James Seppala, Head of Real Estate Europe at Blackstone, said: ‘We are delighted to add Village Hotels, a standout hospitality brand with a unique business model, to our real estate portfolio. We see great potential in lodging and leisure as a sector, especially where we can support strongly positioned businesses that deliver exceptional experiences to their customers. We look forward to partnering with Village Hotels’ seasoned management team and support them as it embarks on its next stage of growth.’
Gary Davis, CEO of Village Hotels, added: ‘With KSL’s support, we have developed a differentiated brand, offering lodging, food, meeting space, and health and wellness, ‘everything under one roof’. Each hotel attracts over 4,000 local members to our health and wellness clubs, quite unique in the hotel world, with high-tech equipment, fitness class facilities and pools with steam room and sauna. A great facility for the business traveller where health and wellness plus work facilities make us best in class. With Blackstone we see great opportunities to expand the number of hotels in the UK and further enhance our existing facilities.’
Jens Blomdahl, Principal at KSL Capital Partners, commented: ‘We are pleased to have partnered with the Village Hotels team to build out a comprehensive hospitality offering and expand their high-quality portfolio — including the addition of more than 1,200 rooms and 45,000 fitness members. We look forward to following Village Hotels’ continued success in this new chapter as part of the Blackstone portfolio.’
Lazard, Santander, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and DLA Piper advised Blackstone. Stanley & Co. International and Dentons acted as KSL’s advisors.
