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British, American and French joint venture is under offer to buy a €440m (£319m) pan-European hotel portfolio from US REIT Host Hotels & Resorts.
Chicago-headquartered Walton Street Capital, UK-based Benson Elliot Capital Management and France’s Algonquin have secured an exclusivity agreement for the eight-asset portfolio dubbed Project Big Bang.
The 2,300-bedroom portfolio comprises the Pullman, Westin, Sheraton, Le Meriden and Marriott brands, including the 227-bedroom Westin Palace Milan, the 640-bedroom Sheraton Rome hotel and conference centre, the 19th century 192-bedroom Le Meridien Grand Hotel in Nurnberg, and the 262-bedroom Renaissance hotel in Brussels.
The deal is the largest pan-European hotel sale so far this year.
Host owns the properties in joint venture with the Dutch civil servants pension fund Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP.
The joint venture owns 20 European hotels in total, comprising around 6,400 rooms.
Eastdil Secured was appointed to market the Big Bang portfolio in December last year with an asking price of €450m.
Chris Day, managing director of leisure specialist Christie + Co, said quantitative easing and the depreciation of the euro had stimulated investor appetite in the European market.
“We are seeing increasing interest in the continent, buying now will deliver good returns over the next few years,” he said.
Maryland-based Host Hotels & Resorts is also in talks to sell the 483-bedroom Hotel Arts in Barcelona, managed by Ritz-Carlton, which it bought for €417m in July 2006 in a separate deal.
