Global asset management giant BlackRock has sold the DoubleTree hotel in Kuala Lampur to the Singapore-based real estate investment firm Royal Group for RM388 million (€99.61 million; $105.73 million).
BlackRock declined to share further details. PERE understands that DoubleTree, managed by the Hilton group, was one of the investments that BlackRock inherited when it acquired the private equity real estate business MGPA. MGPA reportedly acquired the entire complex, which houses the hotel, for $600 million via its $1.3 billion MGPA Fund II opportunity fund in 2007.
The 540-room hotel is located within The Intermark, an integrated commercial development complex spread over 228,948 square feet, which also has a retail mall called the Intermark mall and two office towers called the Vista Tower and the Integra Tower.
“We are pleased with the sale of this property following the extensive refurbishment to re-invigorate the original hotel in the upscale Golden Triangle district in Kuala Lampur, “John Saunders, head of the Asia Pacific region for BlackRock Real Estate said in a statement. “This is another success of BlackRock as the fund manager in repositioning assets in prime locations and transforming them to high-quality ones, to meet the needs of tenants, as well as investors seeking core assets.”
Earlier this month, BlackRock also announced the sale of the Integra Tower to the Malaysian pension fund KWAP. The 39-storey Grade A office building, spread over 760,715 square feet, was sold for RM1.065 billion. The sale price reflected a yield of 6 percent.
According to local news outlets, BlackRock has been seeking buyers for The Intermark, which has an estimated gross development value of RM2.2 billion, since April last year.
The firm has been in the process of exiting investments made via the MGPA funds. In January last year, it sold the Westin hotel located in the Asia Square Tower 2 in Singapore for an estimated S$468 million (€323.49 million; $343.38 million) to Japanese developer Daisho Group. The 305-room hotel is part of the two-tower Asia Square development, which was acquired via MGPA’s Asia Fund III.
The firm is also said to be plotting the launch of its first opportunistic real estate fund since the takeover of MGPA. Soft marketing for the Asia-focused fund, which will have a $1 billion fundraising target, is understood to have begun in September last year.
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