Invesco Real Estate (IRE), the international cross-border property investment manager, is pleased to announce that its first hotel fund is now fully invested following the purchase of its 17th hotel, the Novotel Hanover in Hanover, Germany, bringing the fund's total investments to ca. 700 million across nine European countries.
The purchase of the Novotel Hanover is the eighth hotel that IRE's dedicated hotel team purchased in 2010, spending ca. 300 million in the past 12 months on quality, well-located mid-market hotels following the recovery of the sector at the beginning of 2010. IRE now plans to launch a second hotel fund in early 2011.
The latest acquisition was purchased from Ebertz & Partner with a long-term lease in place with Accor until 2026, and operating under the Novotel brand. Accor is one of the leading global hotel operators with strong branding and covenant, while the acquisition is in line with IRE's hotel fund's investment strategy of building a diversified pan-European portfolio of leased mid-market hotels.
Novotel Hanover is part of the Podbipark Business Park complex but was sold to IRE as a standalone entity. The Novotel is a modern, four-star business hotel with 206 spacious and light rooms and 12 flexible meeting rooms accommodating over 330 people, a bar and a restaurant. The hotel is nestled in the historical factory setting of the Bahlsen biscuit company, in the center of the Lower Saxony capital. The hotel also benefits from a wellness area and beauty salon, as well as a 600-space car park.
Marc Socker, Director, Hotel Fund Management at IRE who led the transaction comments: "We are pleased to have secured this well-located hotel in Germany, in one of Europe's best performing hotel markets. It is accretive to IRE's hotel fund and representative of the quality of hotels that we have acquired for our investors to date. We already have a good working relationship with Ebertz & Partner, having concluded a previous transaction through them in Vienna in October 2010, while simultaneously expanding our relationship with Accor, the leading European hotel operator."
Ascan Kókai, Director, Hotel Fund Management at IRE and fund manager of the hotel fund comments: "We were one of the first fund managers to raise significant capital for a dedicated hotel fund for institutional investors and have successfully deployed this capital alongside attractive financing, since the fund's launch in 2006, to accumulate a fund size of ca. 700 million. Our seven investors are pleased that we have consistently been able to provide a dividend of over 7% annually and we hope to continue to do so through our good quality hotel assets and active asset management through our six dedicated team members."
Source: Invesco Real Estate
