Just a few weeks ago, we reported that the British Columbia Investment Management Corp.—a "pension fund giant"—was planning to sell SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts to Leadon Investment, a subsidiary of an unnamed private equity firm.
Now, we hear that Leadon has formally acquired SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts, a portfolio of 25 hotel properties across Canada. BCIM sold the hotels in a US$843.2-million all-cash transaction.
SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts has 25 hotels with 6,757 rooms across Canada’s 20 largest cities. The company manages hotels under the Marriott, Hilton and Radisson banners, as well as Delta hotels in Toronto, Calgary, Victoria and Halifax. The hotels sold at an average value of US$124,782/room.
Leadon Investment was founded in September 2016 with a legal registered office in British Colombia. According to the Globe and Mail, the company originated in Hong Kong, which would explain why some of the property sales were reviewed under the Investment Canada Act, which oversees foreign acquisitions valued at more than $600 million.
Last year, Chinese investment increased in Canada up to about US$2 billion.
Loeb & Loeb, working with Toronto-based Goodmans, provided legal counsel to the undisclosed private equity firm in connection with the acquisition, with a cross-border team of attorneys led by regulatory and transactional partner Stephen H. Cohen from Loeb & Loeb and real estate transactional partner Bram Green from Goodmans.