CBRE Global Investment Partners (CBRE GIP) announced on Tuesday that it is joining forces with Pygmalion Capital Advisers on a new venture to own and reposition special situation hotel assets and businesses across Europe.
The European Hotel Venture has already secured a portfolio of nine four-star regional city hotels in Spain through a NPL transaction. The hotels were previously owned by the Urvasco construction group. Financial details were not disclosed.
The portfolio comprises 1,650 hotel rooms which are located in Seville, Madrid, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Santander, Tenerife, Valladolid and Ciudad Real.
Silken Hotels will operate the assets under a long-term agreement and the venture will implement a comprehensive refurbishment programme.
'We have entered the Spanish hotel market for the first time acquiring what is a sought-after portfolio,' said Alexander van Riel, head of Continental Europe at CBRE GIP. 'The transaction is in line with our global strategy to establish scalable, programmatic ventures with sector specialists.'
CBRE GIP said the new venture plans to unlock value through selective value add projects while at the same time benefitting from a stable and secure income stream. 'Over time additional investments will be sourced and we will also be looking at hotels with indexed leases,' added Van Riel.
Christophe Beauvilain, founding partner of Pygmalion Capital Advisers, said: 'The combination of European banks still saddled with large NPL exposures and numerous debt funds that have been actively buying NPL books provides a large source of attractive deal flow for our specialist strategy. The Silken portfolio provides us with a strong basis for rapid expansion in the Spanish market given our fast-growing pipeline of investment opportunities.'
Cuatrecasas provided legal advice. Christie & Co and JLL were retained respectively for commercial advisory and technical due diligence.
