Just over a year after it began testing the market, Henderson Park successfully checked out of The Westin Paris - Vendôme hotel.
The private equity firm, which bet big before Covid on very large Paris hotels - it still owns Le Méridien Étoile - sold its majority stake in The Westin to JV partner Dubai Holding, which already had a minority share, in a €650mln transaction.
Henderson Park initially approached buyers at the start of 2022, seeking €800 mln, after paying €550 mln for the landmark in 2017. Dubai bought its initial minority stake from Henderson the following year. A Financial Times report in February 2022 called the trophy hotel beside the Garden des Tuileries a piece of ‘forever real estate in the heart of Paris.’
According to experts, the 428 rooms need heavy and costly refurbishment which Dubai Holding hinted might follow after next year’s Paris Olympics.
Such large transactions have been extremely rare in Q1 2023. The next largest deals this week are two logistics sales, by Panattoni in Poland and Tritax Big Box REIT in the UK, both slightly below €150 mln.
Among six new financings was a c€500 mln structured package for Italian developer Statuto which included a securitisation as well as capital provided by opportunistic investor GWM for completing the development of several Milan projects.
We also track the latest assets to be put up for sale and new fund raising.
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