Greek real estate investment company Pangaea has acquired a 98% share of the owner of Cyprus's only five-star hotel in a joint venture with Invel Real Estate.
The acquisition of The Cyprus Tourism Development Public Company Ltd (CTDC) was announced a few weeks after Invel exercised an option to buy out Pangaea, in which it currently holds a 66% stake. CTDC was bought by Vibrana Holdings Ltd, which is 90% owned by Pangaea and 10% by Invel, for €55.5 mln.
CTDC owns the Hilton Cyprus, the only five-star hotel in the island's capital Nicosia with 294 rooms. The property has considerable value-add potential both by expanding the hotel and through super-prime residential development on the site, in a city with a scarcity of available development plots.
Since Invel acquired a two-thirds stake in Pangaea for €653 mln in December 2013 the company has grown to become the largest real estate imvestment company in Greece by AUM, with a portfolio of 345 assets worth €1.7 bn. The acquisition of the remaining stake is expected to be completed by May 30.
In March last year US fund manager Castlelake and an unnamed institutional investor became part of the consortium owning the indirect majority stake in Pangaea. York Capital is also an investment partner.
Christophoros Papachristophorou, founder of Invel and Pangaea’s executive vice chairman, said: 'We are excited to acquire this iconic asset that has been part of Cyprus’s history since 1967. We look forward to working together with the hotel’s experienced and acclaimed team to reposition and lead this landmark hotel into a prosperous new era.'
