Iris Capital Acquire the AccorInvest Australian Hotel Portfolio Australia’s Largest Hotel Deal for 2020 circa AUD$180m

Main Photo: The Ibis Melbourne Hotel & Apartments, one of the 17 hotels sold to Iris Capital

Date: December 2020

Locations: Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane, Australia

Names: Ibis…Ibis Styles and Ibis Budget

No. of Keys: 1,797

Seller: Iris Capital Pty. Ltd. is buying a portfolio of 17 Ibis hotels from AccorInvest for A$180 million.

The purchase of the freehold hotels with almost 1,800 rooms marks the biggest hotel deal of the year.

Buyer: All properties are operated by Accor, with the portfolio comprising 12 hotels in New South Wales, including the 200-room Ibis Sydney Airport and the Ibis Budget Sydney Olympic Park, along with some regional hotels. Three are located in Victoria, including the largest property in the portfolio, which is the 230-room Ibis Melbourne Hotel & Apartments in Melbourne’s central business district. One is in Canberra, and another is in Brisbane.

The deal came following iProsperity Group Pty. Ltd.’s failed A$220 million acquisition of a portfolio of 23 hotels in 2019.

JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group’s Craig Collins and Peter Harper negotiated the sale. One of Australia’s largest hotel portfolios sold by Luxembourg based AccorInvest to Sydney based Iris Capital.

Known as the AccorInvest Australian Hotel Portfolio, it is made up of 17 hotels located across Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane, together with several major regional cities.

Of the 17 properties, which comprise a total of 1,797 rooms, four are branded as ibis hotels and the other 13 are ibis Budget hotels. Notable assets include the ibis Hotel & Apartments Melbourne, ibis Sydney Airport, ibis Budget Sydney Olympic Park, ibis Newcastle and ibis Budget Brisbane Airport.

Sam Arnaout, CEO, Iris Capital said, “We are delighted to have secured such a large portfolio in-one-line. This purchase fits in well with our current hospitality pub portfolio, takes our count to 45 hotels and delivers on the group’s strategy for diversification. The AccorInvest Portfolio is well placed for repositioning and gives Iris immediate scale in an extremely tightly held hotel market. Seldom do these opportunities present themselves to market.

”We are pleased to secure this transaction, which is part of our asset management plan and is fully in line with our strategy to strengthen in Europe in the economic and mid-range segments,” comments Gilles Clavié, CEO of AccorInvest.

Peter Harper, Managing Director – Head of Investment Sales Australasia for JLL said, “As the biggest hotel sale in 2020, year-to-date hotel transaction volumes have reached almost $600 million which is an incredibly strong result given the start to the year we had. This deal, together with our recent sales of the Novotel Brisbane and Vibe Hotel Melbourne, is a clear demonstration of the capital depth in the Australian hotel investment market for everything from metropolitan motels to major CBD hotels. We expect to announce several other transactions shortly so there’s no doubting that deal flow is back in the market.”

Iris started in 1995 with a vision: to develop a substantial portfolio of assets in the hospitality industry. By 2006 they had acquired 13 hotels and prior to this deal have some 30 hotels and pubs, largely un-branded.

Initially focussing on Sydney’s fast growing south west corridor, they are now across Australia.

Over the last decade they have evolved beyond hospitality with high quality, integrated residential and mixed-use developments, in locations such as Kings Cross and Clovelly, and right across the Sydney region.

Price: AUD180m

Price per Key: AUD100,167

THPT Comment: Fab big deal to end the year with, at a good price for Iris, given that AccorInvest put the portfolio (23 hotels) for AUD300m in July 2018….see Related Posts below.

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