The deal, known as 'Project Sun', is still pending, according to these sources, waiting for the last adjustments on the part of Caixabank and Apollo, the same fund which, in Spain, has bought, among others, 84% of Banco Santander’s real estate (Altamira) for 664 million.
However, the agreement between the bank with its Head Office in Barceona and the New York firm is limited to two thirds of the original portfolio for sale. The Spanish financial firm, with the assistance of consultants Alantra have valued Project Sun at 1,000 million euros, on incorporating, on one hand, unpaid credit divided between 112 hotels, and, on the other, 32 establishments in payment default. According to the sales documentation, on the market are 11,000 rooms, the biggest hotel portfolio of the year. But, at the last hour it was decided to free themselves of the debt for a sum of 350 million and the 20 hotels for a similar amount, leaving 12 properties out of the agreement with Apollo Global Management. The motive behind this was that the offers received for the twelve holiday properties were well below their value in pounds, for which reason it was decided not to include undersold items in the deal.
In addition to Apollo, using as consultants Arcano, Aguirre Newman and Gustavo Gabardo, ex director general of NH Hotels, other funds were also interested in the Caixabank portfolio, such asStarwood, Cerberus, Oaktree and the Bank of America, which had previously acquired assets from Bankia, Santander, Sareb and Sabadell.
Photo: Reuters