Malamaison Aberdeen sold for £16.1m in sale-and-leaseback deal
The 80-bedroom Malmaison Aberdeen has been sold for £16.1m by MWB Group Holdings on a sale-and-leaseback arrangement.
CIP Property has brought the property, on behalf of Citibank International as trustee for Aviva Investors Property Trust, and will be leasing it back for an initial 35-year period to MWB for an annual rent of £1.2m.
Proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce MWB's debt, which amounted to £272.1m on 31 December 2010.
The sale is the fifth sale-and-leaseback deal to be completed recently on Malmaison hotels, including its London, Newcastle, Birmingham and Manchester properties.
Chief executive of MWB, Richard Balfour-Lynn, said that the five transactions has enabled the group to reduce Malmaison's debt by more than £100m. "At the same time we are achieving our goal of maintaining a high proportion of freeholds within the portfolio of approximately 80% (by number), with the remainder made up of extremely long term operating leases," he said.
"The Malmaison and Hotel du Vin brands continue to show great resilience in the current economic climate and remain a firm favourite of our loyal customer base. We are now creating a platform to further expand our business both nationally and internationally."
Malmaison currently has 12 hotels in the UK, while its sister brand, Hotel du Vin, has 15.
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By Janet Harmer
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