Covent Garden's Kingsway Hall hotel sold to Shiva Hotels
The 170-bedroom Kingsway Hall hotel in London's Covent Garden has been sold by Cola Holdings to Shiva Hotels.
The property has been owned by the Cola family since 1991. Their hotel portfolio also includes the Westbury and Kensington Close hotels in the capital.
Asad Cola, managing director of Cola Holdings, said that the hotel had obtained planning permission two weeks ago to add an additional 20 bedrooms to the property. "We had many approaches from both UK and international buyers. It was difficult to choose which party to engage with.
"This transaction has been a major milestone for me since taking over operations from my father in 2005 and I am very proud of the staff and wish Shiva every success with the future of the hotel."
Shiva is a developer and operator of hotels, several which operate under Hilton, Hilton by Hampton, Holiday Inn and Ramada brands, including the 350-bedroom London Hilton Terminal 5.
Rishi Sachdev, managing director of Shiva Hotels, said: "We realised we had stiff competition given the quality of this asset. We plan to carry out a major refurbishment of the property and increase bedroom numbers. We are very excited by the potential to re-brand and re-position this hotel in the market."
"Cola Holdings were very straight forward to deal with and this enabled us to meet a very tight time frame to complete the purchase."
Cola Holdings was advised by Savills and Shiva Hotels by Gerard Nolan and Partners.