Swire Properties, the 200-year-old Hong Kong conglomerate founded as a Liverpool trading company, is on the cusp of -selling its last UK property assets.
US private equity group KSL Capital Partners is in talks to buy Swire’s regional hotels business, Chapter Hotels, for around £40m. The business owns four top-end regional city centre hotels totalling 266 bedrooms.
These are the Magdalen Chapter in Exeter, Devon; the Avon Gorge Hotel in Bristol; the Montpellier Chapter in -Cheltenham, Gloucestershire; and Hotel Seattle in Brighton, East Sussex.
Christie + Co was appointed to explore a sale of Chapter Hotels in March.
The acquisition of the portfolio by KSL comes as it seeks to sell another of its hotel businesses. It is exploring a disposal of the Malmaison Group, which comprises 29 Malmaison and Hotel du Vin properties, through UBS. It bought the hotels in March 2013 for £200m. The assets are on the market for around £350m.
