European Hotel Transactions 2009 an Age of Austerity
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MARCH 2010 £250 European Hotel Transactions 2009 An Age of Austerity CRISTINA BALEKJIAN, Market Intelligence Analyst ELKE GEIEREGGER, Senior Associate SAURABH CHAWLA, Associate Director HVS – London Offi ce 7-10 Chandos Street Cavendish Square London W1G 9DQ Tel: +44-20-7878-7700 Fax: +44-20-7878-7799 Key Issues ‘half’ a 50% stake in the Four Seasons GDP in the Eurozone is estimated Hotel des Bergues in Geneva. The UK to have declined by 4.1% in 2009, How does investment activity took the largest chunk of a relatively compared to growth of 0.8% in 2008. in 2009 compare to that of small distressed-assets pie. The As a result of plunging financial previous years? Aviemore Highland Resort; the Park markets and the general global Inn London, Russell Square; and the economic slowdown, the European What about distressed sales? Marconi building (the former Silken economy entered into an economic project) were the key assets taken out crisis the like of which had not been Who was still able to buy or of administration. seen for more than a decade. For much sell? A lack of funding from banks of the year, the economic environment meant that portfolio transactions How did Europe’s main continued to prove difficult and this faced considerable hurdles, as nearly transaction markets fare? further restricted hotel investment, all such transactions are highly as there was a lack of financing and What to expect in 2010. leveraged. Only €1 billion of the total a lack of confidence in the markets, transaction volumes (approximately and hotel performance continued to Introducti on 35%) were attributable to portfolios, weaken. The last quarter of the year, and only two portfolios (Formule on the other hand, started to see some When taking stock of hotel 1 and Steigenberger) transacted activity in terms of hotel investment investments in Europe a year ago, we at more than €100 million. This and a slowdown in the decline of feared that the ‘party was over’. There compares with seven portfolios in overall hotel performance. were record investment volumes of 2008 and 27 in 2007. €18-20 billion in 2006 and 2007, but In general, single-asset volumes Single Assets just over €6 billion in 2008. Owing to fell to levels last seen in 2002 and deepening recession in most European portfolio values matched volumes last In 2009, HVS recorded a total of 62 economies, falling RevPAR and a freeze seen in the late 1990s. single-asset transactions, each of on lending by commercial banks, 2009 Hotels in Europe continued to more than €7.5 million. We again took the investment community into experience a challenging year in 2009; set €7.5 million as the minimum an ‘age of austerity’. European hotel RevPAR had begun to fall in mid-2008 amount for a transaction to qualify investment activity in 2009 fell further, as a result of the global economic for inclusion in our survey. The by approximately 50%, to just over downturn. To try to maintain their year continued in the same vein as €3 billion: a drop of more than 85% on occupancy, hotels discounted the end of 2008 when transactions the volumes of 2007! average rate more heavily as the year had already slowed significantly. In This fall was expected. After the progressed, and this led in turn to a general, there was a 19% decrease in collapse of Lehman Brothers in double-digit decline in RevPAR in the number of transactions in 2009. September 2008, 2009 was certain most European cities. Later on in the (The number of transactions in 2008 to be a challenging year. But it also year, though, the decline in RevPAR was 77.) The year continued to prove meant that 2009 would be a year of slowed in most cities; markets such as challenging for investors interested in hope for opportunists, some of whom London and Geneva even saw growth the hotel sector: banks were reluctant secretly hoped that banks’ toxic in the closing months. or unable to lend, and financing assets would translate into distressed sales; others hoped lending would FIGURE 1 Total Hotel Investment Volume 2000-09 (€ billions) become relatively easy. However, for most of the year, there were only a 25 limited number of distressed sales, Portfolio lending remained largely restricted Transactions and RevPAR continued to fall in most 20 SingleAsset European cities, right up until the Transactions very end of the third quarter for some 15 and through to the end of 2009 for the rest € Billions Just over €2 billion was transacted 10 in single-asset deals. Only one trophy asset and a half stake in another changed hands in 2009 and no hotel 5 transacted at a value of more than €900,000 a room (compared to one 0 in 2008 and three in 2007). The 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 one possibly trophy asset was The Stafford Hotel in London and the Source:HVS–LondonOffice 2 European Hotel Transacti ons 2009 HVS – London Offi ce FIGURE 2 European Single Asset Hotel Transacti ons 1998-09 into a total investment volume of approximately €317 million. Spain 7 160 accounted for 15% of the total single- asset investment volume and sales 6 140 included the Meliá Madrid Princesa 120 Number and the AB Skipper Hotel, which sold 5 for a combined total of an estimated 100 €160 million (approximately). 4 of Transactions France maintained its investment 80 3 activity; five properties were sold € Billions 60 there, four of them in Paris. Such 2 investments accounted for 5% of the 40 total number of single-asset deals, 1 20 and a total investment of roughly €111 million. Paris’s continued — 0 importance was underlined by the sale 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 of upscale assets such as the Radisson Paris Boulogne, which was bought € Billions NumberofTransactions by Algonquin Asset Management Source:HVS–LondonOffice France (AAMF), and the Renaissance Paris Hotel Le Parc Trocadero, which was bought by Westmont Hospitality remained an enormous obstacle to any and six in London. Hotel investment Group in partnership with Rockpoint. larger single-asset deal and portfolio values in London were approximately In 2009, a total of five qualifying activity. One result of the general €306 million in 2009, or just over transactions were made in central and deceleration in activity was a decrease half of the total investment volume in eastern Europe, down from the seven of 22% in the average price per room, the UK. Meanwhile, the UK provinces of 2008. Poland saw two prominent to €169,000. The economic downturn registered an estimated transaction assets sold in Cracow: the Radisson has had an impact on the availability volume of €237 million, a figure Blu Hotel, which Union Investment of trophy assets in the market, as enhanced by the sale, for more Real Estate acquired for €32 million those owners under no obligation to than €143 million, of the Aviemore (a yield of 7.5%), and the 159-room sell have been more reluctant to place Highland Resort in Scotland. Weighted Andel’s Hotel Cracow, which was their properties in an unfavourable average sales prices per room in acquired by Deka Immobilien for market. For this reason, few trophy the UK varied from €137,000 in the approximately €29 million. assets were transacted in 2009, with provinces to €449,000 in London. Unlike previous years, when we the highest transaction value per HVS puts the value of the undisclosed saw many transactions with a sales room of approximately €1.6 million hotel transactions in the UK at around price of more than €50 million, 2009 (based on a 100% asset value) being €55 million. saw only eight deals at or above in Geneva, where a 50% stake in the Last year, Germany proved to be this figure, a decrease of almost half Four Seasons Hotel de Bergues was an active investment arena in terms compared to 2008. sold. The next two highest prices of the number of hotels transacted, The following significant single- per room were the €827,000 of The having overtaken Spain and France asset transacti ons were recorded in Stafford Hotel and the €707,000 of the previous year; there were a total 2009 (full listing in Tables 2 and 3). the former Silken Hotel development of 12 transactions in Germany in project on The Strand, in London. 2009, compared with nine in 2008. In November, Invesco Real Estate We note that the sales price of Such investment resulted in a total announced it had closed the almost a third of the qualifying single- volume of €393 million: a 19% share acquisition for the Radisson Blu asset transactions in 2009 was not of the total single-asset investment Hamburg in Germany. The 556- publicly disclosed. HVS estimates that volume. Key properties sold included room hotel sold for €155 million, the total price of these transactions the Radisson Blu Hamburg, which a price per room of approximately was just over €400 million. had a sales price of approximately €279,000. This purchase is The UK continues to dominate the €155 million. HVS estimates the considered to be in line with the transactions market, claiming just value of the undisclosed transactions company’s strategy of diversifying its European portfolio by acquiring over a quarter of the single asset in Germany to be approximately three-star and four-star properties. transactions by value (€543 million). €135 million. This was Invesco’s twelfth The UK has been predominant Spain continues to be one of the acquisition in Germany to-date; since taking over from Spain as the leaders in terms of the number of leader in 2005.