US private equity group Colony Capital has injected €40.4 mln into a luxury resort hotel and villa complex in Greece owned by AIM-listed Dolphin Capital Investors.

US private equity group Colony Capital has injected €40.4 mln into a luxury resort hotel and villa complex in Greece owned by AIM-listed Dolphin Capital Investors.

The investment takes the form of a six-year loan facility, of which €19 mln will be injected directly into the resort and €21 mln will be paid to Dolphin for general corporate purposes and the development of other projects. The facility carries a fixed rate of 11%.

The Amanzoe resort is located in the Porto Heli area on the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece and comprises 38 pavilions and four beach cabanas, a spa, the Aman Beach Club and a collection of Aman Villas, serviced by the hotel. Opened in August 2012, it is one of Dolphin’s ‘advanced’ projects and is expected to generate operating profits for 2014, both from the hotel operations and from villa sales.

Colony Capital and Dolphin Capital Investors have been chasing resort assets put up for sale in recent months by Greece's state privatisation fund, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund.

The duo was in the running late last year for the Astir Palace resort in Vouliagmenis, which was eventually sold to Middle Eastern-backed AGC Equity Partners.

Dolphin Capital Investors is the flagship investment vehicle of Dolphin Capital Partners, set up in 2004 by Miltos Kambourides and Pierre Charalambides as an independent private equity firm specialising in land and real estate investments in Southeastern Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America.