Swiss Life Asset Managers, Real Estate France has purchased a portfolio of 10 hotels in Germany dubbed the Pearl portfolio from LFPI for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition was made on behalf of two funds managed by Swiss Life REIM (France). One is an institutional club deal fund specialising in budget and midscale hotels, while the second is the mass market fund SwissLife Dynapierre.
'This portfolio is a great opportunity with well-maintained products, a good spread in the German territory and aligned with our strategy. Our institutional fund will be equally shared between French and German hospitality, offering a large diversification,' commented Fabrice Lombardo, head of real estate and portfolio management at Swiss Life.
The 10 assets comprising 905 keys are located in 'Top 7' cities (Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf) or enjoy prime locations in key regional cities. Previously, Swiss Life's club deal fund focused on French properties.
'This is a new step in the Europeanisation of our portfolios. We are going to pursue this strategy and we are already working on new European real estate club deals,' added Frédéric Bôl, CEO real estate investment management.
LFPI Hotels Management Deutschland will continue to operate the hotels, providing continuity with its previous strategy for the portfolio.
'Over the past years, we completed an ambitious repositioning policy on the assets, with new franchises in some cases and renovations,' commented Thibaut Leonard at LFPI Group. 'We are pleased to sell these properties to Swiss Life Asset Managers, Real estate France, with long term lease contracts. We share the same view on the strategy of these hotels. Moreover, this transaction proves our capacity to operate hotels for institutional third-party owners.'
A further capex programme has been planned, aiming at increasing the capacity of one of the hotels and executing the upgrade of another two properties in the portfolio.
The hotels are mainly branded Accor (Ibis, Ibis Styles, Mercure) but also IHG (Indigo) and Best Western.
Swiss Life France was advised by Corpus Sireo on matters of due diligence, GIDE in France for financing and fiscal issues, Gleiss & Lutz in Germany for real estate and lease matters, and PWC for accountancy and financial issues.
LFPI was advised by JLL Hotels in Germany for the portfolio disposal, as well as CMS-BFL and CMS-HS in France and Germany on legal, tax and real estate matters.
