UK-based investment manager Schroders has acquired European hotel investment and management group Algonquin to boost the firm’s portfolio of assets and alternative businesses.
Schroders has taken over Algonquin’s $2.2 billion worth of assets under management and various co-investments with Algonquin’s existing clients, expanding the firm’s real estate business. Schroders manages $18.2 billion in real estate strategies and £33 billion-worth of assets under management.
“Our strategy has been to concentrate on what we define as winning cities which benefit from key structural themes of urbanization, changing demographics, technological innovation, the shifting demand from Asia and strong infrastructure,” Duncan Owen, global head of real estate at Schroders, said in a statement.
Schroders has appointed Frederic de Brem, CEO of Algonquin, as the head of Schroder Real Estate Hotels. “The Schroders Real Estate team has an excellent track record in various sectors such as offices, retail, logistics, residential and self storage and we are delighted to be part of its expansion into the hotel sector. We believe it is a large market supported by strong fundamentals of growing occupational demand and a sector offering strong income growth for investors,” Brem said in a statement.
Algonquin manages more than 7,500 hotels across Europe through the group’s own brands or international franchises, including Sheraton, Marriott, Hyatt, Radisson and Sofitel. Algonquin’s most recent additions to its portfolio were the Radisson Blu Hotel Toulouse Airport and the AC by Marriott Nice in 2017. Algonquin and Extend AM acquired the 143-room AC hotel on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais. The group later acquired the 200-room Radisson Blu in Blagnac, France with Extendam in October 2017 and began operating the property in January 2018.