Blackstone plans $1.1billion European hotel buildings sale

Bloomberg

Blackstone Group LP, the world’s biggest private-equity property investor, plans to sell hotel buildings in London, Dublin and Amsterdam for about 980 million euros ($1.1 billion), according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The hotels are all operated under Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.’s DoubleTree brand, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information is private. Blackstone and Hilton declined to comment.
European hotel owners are selling properties in order to take advantage of demand from investors seeking to profit from growing travel in the region. Lodging deals in the region rose 79 percent to 23 billion euros in 2015, the most on record, according to data compiled by CBRE Group Inc. Acquisitions in the U.K., Germany and France led the surge.
Tourist arrivals to Europe rose 5 percent in 2015, reaching a record 609 million visitors, the UN’s World Tourism Organization said in January. London had a record 18.6 million overnight stays from overseas visitors, up 7 percent from the year earlier, according to the U.K. government.

Eastdil’s Mandate
Broker Eastdil Secured LLC has been mandated to sell the DoubleTree by Hilton at the Tower of London, valued at about 350 million pounds ($510 million), according to one person.
Eastdil and CBRE Hotels are offering the Amsterdam lodging, valued at about 340 million euros, on behalf of Blackstone, the person said. Savills is handling the sale of the former Burlington hotel in Dublin, valued at about 180 million euros, another person said. The hotels have more than 500 rooms each.
CBRE and Savills declined to comment. No one at Eastdil immediately responded to a request for comment.
Blackstone has $101 billion of real estate under management, according to its website. Blackstone is also the biggest shareholder in Hilton, owning about 46 percent of the hospitality company’s shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.