Aprirose Buys QHotels Portfolio for £525m
Date: September 2017
Location: 26 hotels across the UK, all four star
Name: QHotels
No. of Keys: 3,000. Spas are located at 24 of the hotels, while 10 have golf courses.
Seller: Bain Capital Credit and Canyon Partners, who owned the company since just 2014, when they acquired the business for around £350m. QHotels’ managing director, Michael Purtill, who founded QHotels in 2003, has left the business and retired, along with his wife, Trudi, who was the group’s development director. Bain Capital Credit and Canyon Partners were advised by Eastdil Secured, Deloitte, DLA and Jones Day.
Buyer: Aprirose, headed by chief executive Manish Gudka, and its international investors, including Chinese company Cindat Capital Management. Aprirose was advised by Colliers, West Ridge, KPMG and Dentons
The hotels are to be managed by Redefine BDL Hotels. For Aprirose, the QHotels acquisition is the latest in a number of high profile deals it has secured this year, including buying a 73-strong portfolio of pubs from Mitchells & Butler, which has since been renamed Milton pubs & Taverns. The company now has a portfolio of around £1.7b of assets under management.
It has also acquired the 275-bedroom Mercure Bristol Holland House Hotel & Spa and the 209-bedroom Hampton by Hilton hotel in London Docklands – both of which are managed by RBH, and more recently (December 2017) the 210-rooms Hilton hotel, Reading, for £27.75m.
Price: £525m
Price per Key: £175,000
THPT Comment: Q Hotels was well run by Michael Purtill and his team and the hotels maintained to a high standard, with some real stars amongst the group such as The Queens, Leeds, The Midland, Manchester, Mottram Hall, Slayley Hall, Northumberland and The Cambridge Belfy. Aprirose, not a familiar name in hotels, but with this portfolio, one I am sure we will hear more about in the next few years. Sadly in 2013 Qhotels went bust due to getting caught up in the Irish Banking Resolution Corporation’s Project Rock.
First Seen: The Caterer