UK’s Ability Acquires Hampton by Hilton Bristol From China’s CIMC Capital

Main Photo: The Hampton by Hilton Bristol

Date: March 2020

Location: Bristol Airport, UK

Name: The Hampton by Hilton Bristol Airport

No. of Keys: 201

Seller: CIMC – China International Marine Containers Group is a world leading supplier of logistics and energy equipment, headquartered in Shenzhen of China. They supply high-quality equipment and services, including containers, vehicles, energy, chemical and food equipment, offshore, logistics services, airport facilities. In November 2019, they opened the Hampton by Hilton at Hamilton Park Racecourse in Scotland, to add to their Hampton at Aberdeen airport.

They opened Bristol airport in 2017, as a modular-build hotel, Both hotels (Aberdeen and Bristol) were constructed using an innovative (at the time) modular construction technique. The steel modular units which were used as building blocks for the hotels were each 100% internally completed in CIMC’s factory in China, including glazing, decoration, furniture and fittings, before being shipped to the UK and assembled on site.  Since 2006, CIMC have constructed several hotels for Travelodge, Holiday Inn Express, Premier Inn and others.

Buyer: UK property group Ability Group has bought the hotel. Announcing the deal, CBRE said it has advised CIMC on the sale of the 201-bedroom asset for over £24m.

CBRE said there is the opportunity to expand the hotel to include an additional 50 rooms.

Anuraag Badola, CBRE director of hotel investment properties, said: “This asset is a well-presented, modern hotel that benefits from both its association with Hilton Worldwide and its prime strategic location as the only hotel in Bristol Airport, an important transport hub for the city of Bristol and the South West region.” It is the only hotel in Bristol Airport, an important transport hub for the city of Bristol and the South West region.”

The Ability Group is a British property company founded in 1996 by Andreas Panayiotou. It owns 14 hotels across brands including Premier Inn, Park Inn by Radisson and Travelodge, Hilton and Crowne Plaza.

Price: £24m

Price per Key: £119,403

THPT Comment: Good buy for Ability, growing a nice portfolio of branded hotels in the UK…and a good price for them. Meanwhile, whilst CIMC are sellers here, Chinese hotel group Huazhu reports 93.5% of its hotels open, with average 62% occupancy, 6-7 weeks after the trough of its performance graphs. Good signs!

First Seen: The Caterer

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