Own

Talash Hotels Group acquires West Midlands' Mercure Goldthorn Hotel

West Midlands' Talash Hotels Group has added a sixth property to its portfolio within the last 13 months, purchasing the Mercure Goldthorn Hotel with Allied Irish Bank's backing from Aviva Investors for an undisclosed sum. 

Secured in Talash Hotel's third deal backed by AIB, the 74-guestroom Mercure Goldthorn Hotel is near Wolverhampton city center. The group now owns a 13-hotel portfolio, especially following its purchases of other West Midlands properties. These include Mercure Hotel Telford, Barons Court Hotel, Walsall and The Allesley Hotel, Coventry. 

Mark Duggan, senior relationship manager at AIB, facilitated the Mercure Goldthorn Hotel deal with colleague Morgan Keating. “Recent AIB research shows that the hospitality sector is extremely buoyant at the moment, with the UK on course to attract 38 million visitors this year and regional hotels set to hit record occupancy levels in 2017," He told BQ Live.
 
Talash Hotels' Sanjay and Ravi Kathuria have already set plans to not only add another 10 guestrooms in the hotel and invest in the leisure, restaurant and function facilities, but also to "build on local relationships to enable us to achieve this goal." The purchase has allowed the group to progress with its goal to increase its portfolio to 20 properties by 2020. 
 

With AIB's backing for the second time, Talash Hotels added Wigan Oak's Mercure to its portfolio on June 5, 2017. For an undisclosed sum, the group acquired the 88-guestroom hotel, which was part of a £17-million sale—without a management agreement—of six Mercure hotels operated by Focus Hotel Group under a franchise agreement with AccorHotels and owned by Aviva Investors. However, as part of the deal, the franchise agreement with AccorHotels has remained for Mercure Wigan Oak. This acquisition follows Talash Hotel’s Quorn Country hotel buy in Leicestershire in April 2016.