Salter Brothers goes cold on Graham and Jude Turner’s Spicers Retreats portfolio

Spicers Sangoma Retreat in the Blue Mountains. The sale of the Turners’ prized hospitality portfolio ‘unlikely to go ahead’. Picture: Hamilton Lund

The ambitious plans of Melbourne fund manager Salter Brothers to acquire Spicers Retreats from multi-millionaire travel entrepreneurs Graham and Jude Turner appear to have collapsed.

If the deal had proceeded the acquisition, worth up to $200m, would have been one of the largest hospitality property transactions in Australian history encompassing the majority of the Spicers Retreats portfolio comprising luxury lodges in Sydney’s Blue Mountains including the popular Sangoma Retreat, as well as a couple of luxury properties replete with vineyards in the Hunter Valley and South East Queensland.

Graham and Jude Turner. Picture: AAP

There were also a couple of prized city properties in Sydney’s Potts Point and Brisbane’s New Farm included in the portfolio.

“The indication is it is not going ahead,” Flight Centre co-founder Graham Turner told The Australian in an exclusive interview.

“But that may well change. It is not totally dead and buried (but) it doesn’t look like the sale will go ahead,” Mr Turner said.

Sources close to the deal understand that the fund, headed by managing director Paul Salter, had had a change of heart.

The acquisitive investment house entered an eight-week due diligence to buy the Spicers portfolio in late June.

Spicers Sangoma Retreat in the Blue Mountains. Picture: Hamilton Lund

The decision to amass the portfolio was originally the brainchild of Jude Turner, who has been steadily building the luxury collection for some time. It is understood it was Ms Turner’s decision to sell the portfolio.

Under the deal the Turners planned to keep their Scenic Rim Trail property in the Gold Coast Hinterland, the 4856ha Spicers Hidden Vale retreat and the Hidden Vale Adventure Park outside of Brisbane.

Agent Sam McVay, from McVay Real Estate, was handling the sale on behalf of the Turners. Mr McVay declined to comment.

Salter Brothers is no stranger to the purchase of large hospitality portfolios. It added the Travelodge to its funds management platform recently, taking its portfolio – which includes the Intercontinental Rialto in Melbourne and Crowne Plazas in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra – to 20 hotels and 4744 rooms.