In December 2024, Amante Capital, the European operating partner of US-based investors KKR and Baupost Group, acquired 33 Marriott - branded UK hotels from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
The portfolio consists of 33 full-service properties branded as Marriott and Delta by Marriott in London - including London Marriott County Hall and London Marriott Hotel Regents Park - and regional cities including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Liverpool.
The purchase price was reportedly £900m ($1.16b) and a consortium including Société Générale, BAML and Deutsche Bank provided a £600m loan towards it.
Kash Gohil, head of transactions, Amante Capital, said there were several elements to the success of this acquisition - one of the most significant hotel portfolio deals in recent months.
Firstly, given the significant size of the transaction, he said: “We were lucky to be partnered with KKR and Baupost who provided the scale, the infrastructure, and the nimbleness around decision-making to carry out such a transaction.”
Secondly, Amante Capital was founded two years ago with the goal of both owning and operating its hotels. Twenty-nine of the Marriott-branded hotels came with the option to franchise, which fitted perfectly with Amante’s business model.
Thirdly, having an institutional seller in ADIA was another benefit in terms of the quality and transparency of the due diligence paperwork that Amante received during the sale.
Multiple workstreams
“We were very confident about what we were going to see on the other end. There were no surprises,” Gohil commented.
In 2013, ADIA bought a portfolio of 47 Marriott hotels from Royal Bank of Scotland for a reported £640 million. The Amante acquisition includes properties from the 2013 deal.
The main challenge, he said, was simply the sheer scale of the workstreams and the dialogues and negotiations with multiple parties: the franchise agreements and employment rights; speaking to Marriott; the syndicate of lenders; the seller; the JV partners.
“It was a lot of sleepless nights but I’m glad we got there,” Gohil said. Once the deal closed, the biggest relief was that Amante could hire new employees: “Finally the troops could arrive and there’s going to be help around the office. We went from six people to 40. Now we’ve got a proper capex team, an ops team, asset management and the all the other various disciplines. So, yeah, it feels a lot more comfortable now than six months ago.”
Open communication lines
Above all, Gohil believes that open lines of communication were a key factor in the success of the UK Marriott portfolio acquisition.
“We had almost daily one-on-one calls with the sell side and equally on the Marriott side. And during those six months, there were times when things got a bit iffy, but those direct lines of communication helped us work through that, rather than waiting for a formal meeting via the brokers,” he commented.
The due diligence process for portfolio hotel deals can be lengthy. For example, specialist environmental reports, third-party approvals and commercial negotiations stretched the sale of the 10-hotel Radisson Blu Edwardian portfolio in Central London to almost two years.
The buyer Starwood Capital lined up multiple debt and equity partners, each with their own credit committees. Securing full financing commitments against a backdrop of rising interest rates and shifting hospitality forecasts took time before the acquisition was announced in January 2024.
Faster due diligence?
Will artificial intelligence help to shorten the due diligence process? Yes and no, according to Gohil. “Yes, it’s something that’s going to come around, especially on the legal front: the amount of real estate certificates of title. I’m sure AI can scroll through a database faster.”
“But the reason it took us five months and not a shorter period is, I don’t think there is a way round the technical due diligence or getting the lenders on board or working with the brand. There’s a certain period of work to be done there, for sure,” he commented.
The acquisition has been a launching pad for Amante Capital to build a team and take advantage of new opportunities.
In addition to the UK Marriott portfolio, Amante has three more hotels in its portfolio: the Mercure Nice Centre Notre Dame; Park Grand Kensington London; and an Edition hotel under development in Milan.
The purchase of the 132-bedroom Park Grand Kensington London in May 2024 kickstarted the KKR and Amante partnership. The hotel, now operated by Amante, is undergoing a refurbishment to be repositioned as a boutique lifestyle hotel under Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio brand. The refurb will enhance the environmental credentials of the hotel, since KKR and Amante qualified for a green loan when making the acquisition.
All quotes taken from IHIF EMEA 2025 panels: ‘Sealing the deal: key advice from recent transactions.’ The session was moderated by Barry Noonan, legal director, DLA Piper LLP