There are growing signs that hotel buyers are feeling confident enough to venture beyond the perceived safe havens of the UK, France and Germany.
There are growing signs that hotel buyers are feeling confident enough to venture beyond the perceived safe havens of the UK, France and Germany.
2014 promises to be an exciting year for European hotel investment with a rich and varied vein of opportunities in terms of class and location waiting to be tapped. One of the most eagerly watched opportunites is ‘Project Europe’, which is being marketed by Ivanhoe Cambridge, the real estate asset manager for Canadian pension giant Caisse du dépôt et placement du Québec.
Caisse used to have a total of 60 hotels across North America and Europe but it took the decision in 2011 to withdraw from the hospitality sector. This has resulted in a number of sales, including four central Paris hotels, totalling 600 rooms, sold to a joint venture of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing and its operational partner Paris Inn Group in April 2013.
The remaining European portfolio of 18 mid-class hotels is understood to be under offer, but the question remains whether a deal will get across the finish line before year-end or whether it will stretch into 2014. Given that the portfolio is a €500 mln ticket the most likely candidates to buy it are cash-rich US-based private equity firms with strong real estate divisions.
Despite its name, Project Europe is very German-centric. It includes eight Holiday Inn Express hotels and two Crown Plazas. There is also one hotel left in Paris. But a sale of the entire portfolio would also help spread investor equity beyond the UK, France and Germany, perceived as the Big Three safe haven markets in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
The portfolio features Hotel Inn Expresses in Vienna, Alicante and Valencia in Spain, and Amsterdam and Crown Plaza hotels in Diegem, Belgium and in Amsterdam.
Cormac Mac Ruairi
Staff reporter
