Austrian group K+K Hotels is closing in on a sale of its €350m (£253m) hotel business.
A joint venture between Goldman Sachs and private hotel management company Highgate Hotels is in talks with the hotelier to buy the 10-asset portfolio.
Founded in 1961 by brothers Josef and Helmut Koller, family- owned K+K Hotels operates four-star hotels in eight European cities, including the 154-bedroom K+K Hotel George in Kensington, SW5.
The portfolio comprises 1,184 bedrooms, with hotels in Paris, Barcelona, Munich, Budapest, Bucharest and two hotels each in Vienna and Prague. The largest is the 201-bedroom K+K Hotel Opera in Budapest, Hungary.
Giorgio Manenti, managing director at Eastdil Secured, said: “Private equity firms are the most aggressive in the market at the moment, fuelled by low interest rates. Hotel real estate offers the ability for improvement, and with K+K it is this ability to operate and reposition the assets coupled with ever-growing capital values which has attracted the buyer – something both Highgate and Goldman Sachs master.”
Goldman Sachs and Highgate Hotels are established investment partners, having previously bought hotels in the US and Europe.
Their highest-profile deal to date was the cash purchase of the 22-storey Times Square hotel in Manhattan, which they bought from Starwood Hotels & Resorts in 2012 for $275m (£174m).
Highgate Hotels manages properties comprising more than 10,000 bedrooms in the US, Canada and Europe. It specialises in large hotels such as the 1,300-bedroom The Row NYC Hotel in Manhattan.
JLL is advising K+K.
