AccorInvest puts Australian portfolio up for sale

AccorHotels subsidiary AccorInvest has put 23 hotels and lease interests in Australia up for sale with franchise agreements or vacant possession. The portfolio could go for as much as $300 million.

The hotels, operated by AccorHotels through management agreements, are in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and Perth among several other regional cities. The portfolio includes 17 hotels with 1,797 guestrooms, four of which are Ibis hotels while the remaining 13 are Ibis Budget hotels. These include the Ibis Hotel & Apartments Melbourne, the Ibis Sydney Airport, the Ibis Budget Sydney Olympic Park and the Ibis Newcastle.

Six of the hotels in the portfolio are leased, including COMO MGallery by Sofitel in Melbourne, the Novotel Brisbane, Mercure and Ibis hotels in Brisbane and the Mercure and Ibis hotels in Perth. In total, these six hotels have 1,249 guestrooms. 

The assets, which are part of the former Tourism Asset Holdings, will potentially be sold together or separately. JLL Hotels & Hospitality is brokering the sale. Craig Collins, chief executive of Australasia for JLL, says this is one of the largest hotel deals the Australian market has ever seen. 

"The pure scale of this portfolio and its diversity, in terms of location, market positioning and income profile, presents investors with an opportunity to immediately establish an unparalleled foothold in one of Asia-Pacific's most highly sought-after hotel investment destinations," Collins told the Sydney Morning Herald. "Economy hotels are a highly proven and successful hotel model in the Australian market. Their typically low operating costs and high level of profitability make them very attractive investments."

The hotels have several potential buyers, including high-net-worth investors, like Dr. Jerry Schwartz, who currently owns a variety of Australian hotels, IProsperity, Impact Investment Group, M&L Hospitality and other Asian companies, who are active investors in the country's market.  

The portfolio sale follows AccorHotels' expansion across Australia in 2018. The Paris-based hotel group acquired Mantra Hotel Group in a $1.2-billion deal to facilitate these plans.