Union Investment expands EUR 1.6b hotel portfolio

Union Investment Real Estate has expanded its EUR 1.6 bn hotel portfolio by forming a partnership with Spanish operator Barceló Hotels.

The hotel group has agreed to sell its first hotel in Hamburg to Union Investment for an undisclosed price.

Union Investment, which is based in Hamburg, said that the 20-year lease makes the 193-room hotel, which opened in March 2012, an attractive investment for inclusion in the open-ended real estate fund UniImmo: Deutschland.

The UniImmo: Deutschland portfolio already includes Hamburg hotels belonging to the Marriott and Scandic chains.

In addition to the transaction in Hamburg, the parties have exchanged contracts for the acquisition of the Barceló Raval in Barcelona by the UniImmo: Europa fund. The deal is scheduled to complete in March 2013.

'Barcelona is one of the most attractive travel and conference destinations in Europe and provides the perfect context for our first hotel investment in Spain,' said Frank Billand, a member of the management board of Union Investment Real Estate.

Established as a family business in 1931 in Palma de Mallorca, Barceló now operates 142 hotels in 16 countries across Europe, Latin America and the US.