Chinese in hot seat for 23 ibis hotels
Hotel sales around Australia are surging to record levels with more than $1 billion worth of properties set to change hands as the Chinese-backed iProsperity Group chases the AccorInvest portfolio for more than $260 million in the latest major play.
The group is targeting the AccorInvest holdings, a mix of 23 properties and leased interests in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and Perth, along with several major regional cities.
JLL Hotels & Hospitality Groups’ Craig Collins and Peter Harper are handling the sale but declined to comment, as did iProsperity Group, which earlier this year bought the five-star Pullman on the Park near the Melbourne Cricket Ground from Canadian real estate giant Brookfield.
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The AccorInvest portfolio spans 17 owned properties, comprising 1797 rooms. Four are branded 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 and ibis Newcastle.
The six lease interests include The COMO Mgallery by Sofitel in Melbourne, the Novotel, Mercure and ibis hotels in Brisbane and the Mercure and ibis hotels in Perth.
The portfolio also drew interest from Moelis and Blackstone.
The Pullman on the Park hotel in East Melbourne sold earlier this year.
AccorInvest is the spun-off hotel investment platform of Paris-listed AccorHotels. A 57.8% stake in the vehicle was sold to GIC, PIF, Credit Agricole Assurances, Colony NorthStar and Amundi, and other investors for €4.6 billion earlier this year.
AccorInvest’s hotel real estate portfolio stood at about 891 hotels with most in Europe.
IProsperity controls a portfolio including the Novotel Glen Waverley in Melbourne and other hotels in prime locations in major cities under the InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Park Regis brands. It has longer-term plans to control $10bn worth of local property.
Other major players are pushing into the Australian market.
French giant AXA Investment Managers-Real Assets is closing in on a deal to buy three hotels at Sydney Olympic Park and a fourth in Canberra for about $350 million.
The play is the largest the AXA investment unit has made in Australian property since it bought the Eureka funds business two years ago.
AXA is buying the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s 177-room Novotel Sydney Olympic Park, 212-room Pullman at Sydney Olympic Park and 144-room ibis Sydney Olympic Park. The portfolio also includes the Novotel Canberra, which has significant development potential.
Elsewhere, the carve-up of late construction tycoon Len Buckeridge’s property empire kicked off with the sale of the Aloft Perth hotel, and an office complex, for $100m to Singapore’s Hiap Hoe. Malaysia’s YTL Corp is closing in on the Westin Perth for about $200m.
Individual assets are also trading strongly, with the Park Regis Hotel in Sydney selling to Taiwan’s Yeh family for $54.18 million.
Singaporean family office fund-anchored Xgenesis is also offering the Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise for more than $100 million.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
