Blackstone said planning US$1.1b sale of European hotels

[BERLIN] Blackstone Group LP, the world's biggest private-equity property investor, plans to sell hotel buildings in London, Dublin and Amsterdam for about 980 million euros (S$1.53 billion), according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The hotels are all operated under Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc's DoubleTree brand, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information is private. Blackstone and Hilton declined to comment.

European hotel owners are selling properties in order to take advantage of demand from investors seeking to profit from growing travel in the region. Lodging deals in the region rose 79 per cent to 23 billion euros in 2015, the most on record, according to data compiled by CBRE Group Inc. Acquisitions in the UK, Germany and France led the surge.

Broker Eastdil Secured LLC has been mandated to sell the DoubleTree by Hilton at the Tower of London, valued at about 350 million pounds (S$692 million), according to one person.

Eastdil and CBRE Hotels are offering the Amsterdam lodging, valued at about 340 million euros, on behalf of Blackstone, the person said. Savills is handling the sale of the former Burlington hotel in Dublin, valued at about 180 million euros, another person said. The hotels have more than 500 rooms each.

CBRE and Savills declined to comment. No one at Eastdil immediately responded to a request for comment.

Blackstone has US$101 billion of real estate under management, according to its website. Blackstone is also the biggest shareholder in Hilton, owning about 46 per cent of the hospitality company's shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

BLOOMBERG