Starwood Capital Buys Hilton UK Portfolio
Date: February 2018
Location: 7 Hotels across the UK – London (Islington), Edinburgh, Bath, Belfast, Blackpool, Milton Keynes, Coylumbridge, Scotland.
Name: Hilton – mostly four star
Hilton London Angel Islington
No. of Keys: 1,300
Seller: Park Hotels & Resorts, the vehicle Hilton spun off in 2016 that owns the hotels they wanted to sell as part of their asset-lite strategy. The portfolio sale also follows Park Hotels recent sales of three Embassy Suites (Atlanta, San Rafael CA, and Kansas City in the USA) for US$95.8m, US$142,000 per key and the Hilton Durban, South Africa for US$32.5m, US$99,000 per key. CBRE were appointed to manage the UK sale.
Buyer: Starwood Global Opportunity Fund XI, part of Starwood Capital, owner of UK’s Principal Hotels.
They have appointed Kew Green Hotels to operate the seven hotels, who also operate more than 50 hotels in cities throughout the UK, under the brands Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn Express (IHG), Courtyard by Marriott, ibis Styles (Accor) and Hampton by Hilton, following this recent acquisition.
Kew Green was acquired by HK CTS Metropark Hotels in 2015, and is now headed up by Alex Pritchard, CEO based in Richmond, Surrey, UK. This deal saw Kew Green expand it’s management operation into Beijing with the Crowne Plaza Beijing Lido and Metropark (now Holiday Inn) Beijing Lido in 2018.
The two groups also partnered in April 2017 for the purchase of the 298-room Holiday Inn Manchester City Centre. An affiliate of Starwood Global Opportunity Fund XI acquired the hotel from Dominvs Group. The Holiday Inn opened in April 2016 under the management of Kew Green through a franchise agreement.
Price: £135m
Price per Key: £103,846
THPT Comment: Late last year Starwood was rumoured as looking to sell their substantial UK hotel company – Principal, for around £1.2bn, which is why, we guess, they gave this portfolio to Kew Green to manage…
The sale is subject to the approval of AccorHotels shareholders and requires certain antitrust and regulatory approvals.
The transaction is expected to be finalised in the second quarter of 2018.
First Seen: Hotel Management