RBS or Royal Bank of Scotland has reported setting up the control of 42 hotels in the UK, all branded by Marriott. This has become possible after the bank couldn’t restructure the £700 million debt with the previous owner of the portfolio – Quinlan Private and Derek Real Estate.
Financial Times reports the new receiver of the portfolio. This is going to be Ernst & Young that are going to pay for it approximately £1 billion. However, even after this there will be still a debt of about £900 million.
The portfolio of 42 Marriott hotels in the UK was acquired by Quinlan and Derek together with Igal Ahouvi in 2007. The sum of the deal estimated £1.1 billion. At that time the portfolio consisted of 47 properties, but it was not profitable at that time as well, and so 5 properties were sold to cover the debt.
42 Marriott hotels are located in Wales, Scotland and England. The total number of guestrooms in all properties reaches 8,000. It is also reported that Marriott will stay the managing organization for all properties as the contract with the hotelier expires only in 2036.