Benson, Walton team up for €420m hotel JV

UK-based Benson Elliot and US-based Walton Street have acquired a pan-European hotel portfolio comprising of eight prime hotels in seven major cities across five countries.

A joint venture between private equity real estate fund managers, London-based Benson Elliot and Chicago-based Walton Street Capital, plus hotel specialist Algonquin has acquired eight hotels for €420 million.

The hotel portfolio is pan-European, comprising of eight prime hotels in seven major cities across five countries and was acquired from a Host Hotels & Resorts European joint venture.

The eight freehold properties total 2,308 rooms in Venice, Paris, Milan, Rome, Warsaw, Nuremberg and Brussels, located adjacent to or in metropolitan city centres, commercial corridors or leisure destinations.

“This is a significant transaction for Benson Elliot, concluded with trusted partners like Algonquin, who we worked closely with on our Novotel Edinburgh Park investment,” commented Trish Barrigan, Benson Elliot senior partner. “The portfolio is of exceptionally high quality, with opportunities to grow income and value in a sector attracting increasing attention from investors.”

“This portfolio represents a high-quality collection of full-service branded assets that is being acquired at both an attractive yield and significant discount to replacement cost, at what we believe is an opportunistic point in the investment cycle,” added Robert Bloom, senior principal at Walton Street.