Two prime hotels in Central Europe which were owned by Irish company Quinn Insurance have been sold out of administration for a combined €62 mln.
Two prime hotels in Central Europe which were owned by Irish company Quinn Insurance have been sold out of administration for a combined €62 mln.
The Sheraton Krakow hotel was sold to French hotel company Algonquin for around €38 mln (€164,000 per key), while the Hilton Sofia hotel went for around €24 mln (€98,000 per key) to a consortium of local businessmen.
In both cases, Jones Lang La Salle Hotels & Hospitality Group acted as the exclusive sales agent and adviser to Quinn Insurance and its administrators at Grant Thornton Dublin. CMS acted as legal adviser to Quinn Insurance throughout the sales process.
Both sales took over 10 months to complete.
The Sheraton Krakow hotel is a 232-bedroom hotel that opened in 2004 and is located on the banks of the river Vistula, close to the historic Wawel castle in Poland's second-largest city.
The Hilton Sofia hotel is located around 2 km from the city centre on a busy arterial road. The hotel generated a lot of interest from local buyers and was the object of a competitive bidding process.
Angus Wade, executive vice-president at Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels & Hospitality Group London, said: 'These sales represent the first large corporate hotel transactions in the CEE region for approximately three years. Increased interest in this region has been triggered by a mismatch in pricing with core Western European markets and we expect 2014 to be an interesting year for investors looking for secure investments in CEE.'
