Queensgate Investments has acquired four hotels in London from privately-held hotel group Grange Hotels for a total £1 bn (€1.2 bn).
The four upscale hotels are the Grange St Paul’s EC4, Grange Tower Bridge E1, Grange City EC3, and Grange Holborn WC1. The portfolio comprises 1,345 Central London rooms, totalling around 930,000 sq ft (86,400 m2) of real estate. The hotels have significant meeting and conference space as well as spa and leisure facilities including swimming pools.
Fattal Hotel Group, a €2 bn hospitality company with 200 hotels across 18 countries, is to operate the assets. It will carry out refurbishments of all the properties and pursue a repositioning strategy to drive performance and growth, increasing its London portfolio to a total of seven hotels and 2,000 rooms. The four hotels will be flagged under Fattal’s Leonardo Royal and NYX brands.
Queensgate has secured a fully underwritten debt facility from Société Générale, The Carlyle Group and Cheyne Capital for the transaction.
Jason Kow, CEO of Queensgate Investments, commented: ‘Queensgate is proud to have completed this milestone acquisition which represents circa 1M sq ft of high-quality Central London hotels and delivers superior cash on cash returns for our investors.'
A spokesman for Grange Hotels said: ‘We are delighted with the outcome of the transaction. We acquired, developed and constructed the portfolio over a period of 20 years. The four hotels give the purchaser immediate scale in excellent locations, in one of the most highly sought-after and dynamic markets in the world.’
Brown Rudnick and EY advised Queensgate on the deal. HFF Securities acted as exclusive financial adviser to Grange.
Queensgate is a partnership between the Kow Family, Alvarium Investments (formerly known as LJ Partnership), Peterson Group and Dilmun. The firm manages around £3 bn worth of assets through its suite of Queensgate Investments Funds.
Grange Hotels is one of London’s largest privately-held hotel groups, which, following the transaction, will own and operate 13 hotels in the UK capital.
