American hotel group Hilton is to sell two of its largest UK hotels to Edward Wojakovski's family-owned Tonstate for £417 mln (EUR 623 mln). It is the largest single asset hotel deal ever to be transacted in Europe.
American hotel group Hilton is to sell two of its largest UK hotels to Edward Wojakovski's family-owned Tonstate for £417 mln (EUR 623 mln). It is the largest single asset hotel deal ever to be transacted in Europe.
The sale and manage-back deal for the 1,000-room Hilton London Metropole and the 794-room Hilton Birmingham Metropole is expected to be completed before the end of the year, British newspaper The Times reported. Tonstate has committed itself to providing the finance required to continue renovation programmes at each of the properties. Christie & Co advised Hilton and CBRE Hotels advised Tonstate.
Robert La Forgia, Hilton's executive vice-president and chief financial officer, said that the sale of the two hotels would take the amount raised by the company since it launched an asset disposal programme in early 2005 to more than $2 bn (EUR 1.6 bn).
La Forgia suggested that further hotel sales are under consideration. 'Consistent with our strategy to grow the managed and franchised business and reduce hotel ownership, we intend to place further hotels on the market. We have recently listed 11 properties across Europe and also announced that we are evaluating alternatives for the Scandic Hotels brand.'
Hilton will use the proceeds from the sale of the hotels to reduce debt taken on to fund the £3.3 billion acquisition this year of Hilton International. That deal reunited the Hilton brand globally for the first time since 1964, the Times said.