Henderson Park, the new European real estate investment platform founded by Nick Weber, announces that it has acquired the Le Méridien Etoile hotel, the largest hotel in Paris, from a partnership of Mount Kellett Capital Management and Cedar Capital.
The acquisition is the first made by Henderson Park, since it launched in September 2016 having raised €466.2m ($500m) from Stone Point Capital, Kuwait Investment Authority and Wafra Investment Advisory Group as cornerstone investors.
Le Méridien Etoile is an iconic, 1,025 room landmark hotel in Paris, originally built in 1972 as Air France’s flagship hotel. The hotel benefits from an outstanding freehold location in central Paris, directly opposite the Paris Convention Centre, one of the largest conference centres in Europe.
Le Méridien Etoile was relaunched in October 2016 following a substantial renovation, with extensive upgrades to the rooms and banqueting and conference facilities. Henderson Park believes that the recent renovation of the hotel positions Le Méridien Etoile well to benefit from a recovery of the Paris hotel market and will work with the hotel’s management team and employees to create further value from this exceptional asset. The hotel is currently operated by Starwood Hotels under its Le Méridien brand.
Nick Weber, Founding Partner of Henderson Park, said: “Le Méridien Etoile hotel is a superb hotel with significant potential and fits our approach to investments. We are firm believers in Paris’ strong underlying fundamentals as both a travel destination and an investment location, which, next to London, is one of only two truly global cities in Europe and remains one of the top three cities in the world in terms of tourist numbers."
