BVK to Invest €500m in DACH Hotels with Developer GBI

Main Photo: The 259 room Lindner Hotel in Hamburg, the first investment of the new fund

Date: April 2019

Location: DACH – Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Name: The Lindner Hotel Am Michel in Hamburg – first investment

No. of Keys: 259

Seller: Of this first deal – Lloyd Fonds, a leading German asset manager, after 10 years of ownership.

Who: Germany’s largest pension fund Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) is teaming up with developer GBI to invest €500m in hotels in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Universal-Investment has structured a fund for the €77bn institutional investor to hold assets over the long term.

BVK has already made its first investment, acquiring the Lindner Hotel Am Michel in Hamburg.

“This four-star hotel in a prime city location in one of the most dynamic hotel markets in Germany is a fitting start for the fund,” said Simon Behr, director of fund management and transaction at GBI.

Christoph Geirhos, head of real estate purchase and sale at BVK, said: “Hotel properties are highly attractive for long-term-oriented investors.

“The long-term operator agreements in particular provide a high degree of security and predictability. The Lindner Hotel in Hamburg, for example, ideally meets these criteria.”

The hotel in Neanderstrasse, which has 259 rooms and seven conference rooms, was opened in 2008.

BVK will seek to acquire comparable two-star and four-star hotels in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in major cities like Hamburg, as well secondary and tertiary cities.

As well as traditional hotels, the fund will also look at the emerging long-stay sector.

“We are also interested in properties that are still in project development status,” said Behr.

Behr said that GBI, as Germany’s largest developer, “knows precisely which operators in Germany and abroad are interested in certain locations”, and can “find the optimal solution together with development partners”.

THPT Comment: When these two major institutions invest €500bn in hotels, you know the sector is still quite sexy!

First Seen: IPE Real Assets

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