AXA IM - Real Assets, a global leader in real asset investments and the leading real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe, announces that it has completed the acquisition, on behalf of AXA Insurance Companies, of a 55% stake in the Hilton Diagonal Mar Hotel in central Barcelona, from Iberdrola Inmobiliaria for €80m. The hotel is operated by Hilton Hotels on a long term lease.
Hilton Diagonal is a 4-star, 30,000 m² hotel comprising 430 rooms across 24 floors, with 2,000 m² of state of the art in-house conference facilities and extra amenities including a prominent beach club, two restaurants and fitness and sauna facilities. The hotel benefits from excellent transport links, with the metro station a short walk, Barcelona–El Prat Airport less than 25 minutes away and east vehicular access to the Ronda Litoral motorway. The hotel is situated alongside the Barcelona Convention Centre (CCIB), which received over half a million attendees in 2016 and is only a short walk from Diagonal Mar, one of the biggest shopping centres in Barcelona.
The Diagonal Mar Hotel adds to AXA IM - Real Assets’ €2.6bn hotel portfolio managed on behalf of its clients. AXA IM - Real Assets’ hotels are predominantly managed by leading hotel operators through all variations of management contracts, from traditional leases to franchise agreements. This is in line with its investment strategy of undertaking a full range of partnership options with best in class operating companies.
Laurent Jacquemin, European Head of Transactions at AXA IM - Real Assets, commented: “The hotel is located in one of the most attractive parts of Barcelona, a city that remains one of the preferred destinations for foreign visitors to Spain, with a balanced mix of both leisure and business visitors. The Spanish market outperformed most European markets during 2016, driven by Barcelona, where a ban on some new hotel developments should combine with positive economic growth and rising tourist numbers to continue driving growth.”
