In the first major hotel portfolio transaction in the United Kingdom of the new year, American private-equity firm Starwood Capital Group has acquired 10 London hotels from Edwardian Hotels.
No price tag was announced in a transaction news release issued Friday, but Bloomberg News reported an hour before the confirmation of the deal that the sum was approximately £800 million ($1.02 billion), attributing the figure to anonymous sources.
When asked to confirm the price of the transaction, both Starwood Capital and Edwardian declined to comment beyond the details outlined in their announcement.
In the deal, Starwood Capital acquires 10 Radisson Blu hotels in London. Those hotels are:
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Edwardian Bond Street Hotel, formerly the Radisson Blu Edwardian Berkshire Hotel.
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Bloomsbury Street Hotel.
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Grafton Hotel.
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Hampshire Hotel.
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Heathrow Hotel & Conference Centre.
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Kenilworth Hotel.
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Mercer Street Hotel.
- Radisson Blu Edwardian New Providence Wharf Hotel.
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Sussex Hotel.
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Vanderbilt Hotel.
“London is one of the world’s most sought-after hotel markets, and this portfolio enables to us gain exposure on a unique scale. … We plan to invest significant [capital expenditure] during our ownership into further enhancing the hotels,” Tim Abram, managing director at Starwood Capital, said in a news release announcing the transaction.
Before the sale was announced, Edwardian’s entire portfolio in the United Kingdom comprised more than 3,000 rooms. A total of 2,053 hotel rooms are included in the 10-hotel deal with Starwood Capital.
According to the release, Edwardian will continue to manage the 10 Radisson Blu hotels on a “transitional basis while Starwood Capital plans its future investment into the hotels.” Starwood’s portfolio of European hotels now nears the 10,000-room market across 47 hotels.
The sale excludes three hotels Edwardian believes are its jewels: the 350-room The Londoner, on Leicester Square, which opened in 2021; the 404-room The May Fair, tucked behind Piccadilly, which opened in 1927; and the 263-room Edwardian Manchester, which opened in 1853.
The Manchester hotel’s building used to be The Free Trade Hall, made famous for the May 1966 Bob Dylan concert in which he was heckled by a member of the audience for switching halfway through his performance to an electric guitar.
The Londoner’s opening was regarded as one of the hotel-opening highlights of the past quarter of a century in London, a development that has helped reposition Leicester Square as one of the city’s major tourism locations.
Edwardian Hotels was founded by hotelier Jasminder Singh in the mid-1970s. His son, Inderneel Singh, CEO of Edwardian, said in the news release announcing the deal that by holding its three landmark hotels, the company signals its “continued commitment to invest in and deliver distinctive experiences for guests in high-end, purpose-built, city-centre hotels.”