Moorfield Real Estate Fund has paid £400 mln (EUR 605 mln) to acquire 24 hotels in the UK from MacDonald Hotels & Resorts. The terms of the deal specify that MacDonald will continue to manage the properties in the short term. It will face off again two international hotel companies for the long-term management contract, according to newspaper The Scotsman.

Moorfield Real Estate Fund has paid £400 mln (EUR 605 mln) to acquire 24 hotels in the UK from MacDonald Hotels & Resorts. The terms of the deal specify that MacDonald will continue to manage the properties in the short term. It will face off again two international hotel companies for the long-term management contract, according to newspaper The Scotsman.

'This is a significant transaction for Macdonald Hotels & Resorts and one which we planned to execute when we took the company off the London Stock Exchange and back into private ownership three and a half years ago, ' executive chairman Donald Macdonald told the newspaper.

He said MacDonald has embarked on a programme of investment and refurbishment in relation to its remaining 45 hotels and 10 resorts. It also aims at 'organically extending a number of properties across the country and creating new city centre hotels'.

The company returned to private ownership in 2003 in one of Scotland's biggest public-to-private deals at a cost of £590 mln (EUR 893 mln).