Accor’s HotelInvest Acquires Two Hotel Portfolios For $1.22 Billion

By Alex Girda, Associate Editor

Germany, Switzerland & the Netherlands—Accor’s HotelInvest business is adding two real estate portfolios, having agreements to purchase a total of 97 hotels for a combined fee of around $1.22 billion. The announcement was recently revealed, with the company acquiring hospitality properties across Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

The first portfolio comprises a total of 86 venues, 67 of which are located in Germany, and the other 19 are in the Netherlands. A total of 11,286 rooms are part of the portfolio acquired by HotelInvest in a transaction worth approximately $980 million. The hotels involved in the transaction have been managed by Accord since 2007 under variable-rent leases. Thirty one of the hotels are ibis budget-branded, 29 are ibis hotels and 17 are under the Mercure brand, while the remaining facilities are Novotel-branded. The properties were acquired from Moor Park Fund I and II, advised by Moor Park Capital Partners, a real estate private equity investment advisory business.

Accor is also currently in negotiations with Axa Real Estate for the other portfolio, totaling 11 hospitality venues and 1,592 rooms in Switzerland. Operated by Accor since 2008, also under variable-rent leases, the 11 hotels are under the ibis, ibis budget, Novotel and MGallery.

The purchases will be accretive to the company’s 2014 EBIT. The relative contribution of owned hotels to HotelInvest’s net operating income will increase by around 68 percent. HotelInvest, one of the main hotel investors in Europe, has its sights on improving that figure to more than 75 percent over the medium term.