US investor Carlyle has reportedly hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to manage the sale or the public listing of its B&B Hotels chain.
US investor Carlyle has reportedly hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to manage the sale or the public listing of its B&B Hotels chain.
According to a news report by French paper Les Echos, Carlyle is hoping to fetch around €1 bn with the operation, which is planned to take place in the autumn.
Carlyle bought the European hotel group in 2010 from French listed investment group Eurazeo for €480 mln. In its turn, Eurazeo's real estate investment unit ANF had bought the package in November 2007 for €471 mln.
B&B Hotel Group currently operates around 300 budget hotels across Germany, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Portugal and the Netherlands.
Launched in Brittany, France in 1990, B&B is at the 'high end' of the budget hotel segment, serving business and leisure travellers. Since acquiring the hotel operator in 2010, Carlyle has been seeking to expand the business in a number of European markets including Germany, where earlier this year it sold a portfolio of 22 B&B budget hotels to Foncière des Murs.
The 2,271-key portfolio is let on a long-term basis to the B&B Group and includes properties in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart as well as in smaller cities like Braunschweig, Kassel, Mönchengladbach and Würzburg.
