Oulton Hall and Queens Hotel owner sold in £525m deal

QHotels, which is based in Morley, was founded by Michael Purtill and Ian Goulding in 2003 with just two hotels. The business now has 26 five and four star regional hotels.

Real estate investment firm Aprirose acquired the QHotel group from Bain Capital Credit and Canyon Partners.

The portfolio’s assets, which comprise 3,680 beds, are located throughout the UK and in major cities including Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow.

Manish Gudka, CEO at Aprirose, said: “We are pleased to have completed on this exciting and unique portfolio.

“This was a complicated deal, which had a lot of interest shown in it from the market, but owing to our investors, contacts and transactional experience we were able to get it done in quick time.

“The 26 hotels, spread throughout the UK, will add a new dimension to our asset diverse real estate portfolio and also offer us opportunities to further develop the portfolio to increase the number of beds available.”

The QHotel portfolio is made up of a variety of hotels including spa hotels, golf resorts and luxury hotels, including the Aldwark Manor Golf & Spa Hotel in York, The Queens Hotel in Leeds city centre and Oulton Hall, near Leeds. The acquisition of the QHotel portfolio marks the largest hotel transaction this year. The deal was funded by Aprirose and its roster of international investors, including Chinese investor Cindat Capital Management.

Aprirose has appointed hotel management company Redefine|BDL Hotels to manage the 26 hotels continuing an already successful partnership.

The acquisition of the QHotel portfolio follows Aprirose’s purchase of the 73 asset M&B pub portfolio, which has been named Milton Pubs & Taverns.

Gary Jones, chief operation officer at Aprirose, said: “Our strategy is to double the value of assets under management, while at the same time exiting from maturing transactions. This acquisition is part of a wider strategy and takes our portfolio to circa £1.7bn of assets under management.

“We have the resources to continue to grow our balance sheet and we remain very keen to purchase further UK real estate over a variety of asset classes that will show good returns to Aprirose and our investors.”

Aprirose was advised by Colliers, West Ridge, KPMG and Dentons and Bain Capital Credit and Canyon Partners were advised by Eastdil Secured, Deloitte, DLA and Jones Day.