By Ian McConnell
MACDONALD Hotels has agreed to sell two major properties, including the 156-bedroom Macdonald Holyrood in Edinburgh, funds managed by London-based private equity firm Zetland Capital Partners.
The other hotel being sold is the 338-bedroom Macdonald Manchester Hotel.
The deal, for an undisclosed sum, is described as “one of the largest hotels transactions completed outside of London in 2021”. The hotels will be managed by Zetland’s joint venture partner, Hamilton Hotel Partners.
Aaron Falls, chief financial officer of Bathgate-based Macdonald Hotels & Resorts, said: “The successful sale of these well-known hotels is a major milestone in our strategic business plan, which will see a substantial reinvestment in upgrading the remainder of our 28-strong hotel portfolio and nine resorts, together with further debt reduction.”
READ MORE: Never mind the horizon,Brexit brigade cannot gaze past navel: Ian McConnell
Ahmed Hamdani, managing partner at Zetland Capital Partners LLP, said: “We are delighted to have acquired these two very well-located hotels in prime UK cities. Our strategy is to provide significant investment to refurbish and reposition these hotels. This acquisition aligns with our investment strategy to purchase and invest in well-located hotels across the UK, where we can materially enhance the product offering and benefit from the recovery of demand in the UK’s key cities.”
READ MORE: Lodges planned by new owner of Isle of Skye hotel
Frank Croston, partner at Hamilton Hotel Partners, said: “We are delighted to be expanding our partnership with Zetland through the acquisition of these two hotels in two of the UK’s strongest markets. We are looking forward to working with Zetland and the hotel teams to invest into and reposition these hotels.”
READ MORE: Taiwan flags climate lessons from Scottish cities
Zetland Capital Partners was founded in 2016 by Mr Hamdani.
Hamilton currently oversees a portfolio of around 70 hotels located throughout Europe.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here