November 16, 2016HENDERSON PARK MAKES FIRST ACQUISITION WITH PURCHASE OF LANDMARK LE MÉRIDIEN ETOILE HOTEL IN PARIS
16th November 2016: Henderson Park, the new European real estate investment platform founded by Nick Weber, announces that it has acquired the Le Méridien Etoile hotel, the largest hotel in Paris, from a partnership of Mount Kellett Capital Management and Cedar Capital. The acquisition is the first made by Henderson Park, since it launched in September 2016 having raised $500 million from Stone Point Capital, Kuwait Investment Authority and Wafra Investment Advisory Group as cornerstone investors.
Le Méridien Etoile is an iconic, 1,025 room landmark hotel in Paris, originally built in 1972 as Air France’s flagship hotel. The hotel benefits from an outstanding freehold location in central Paris, directly opposite the Paris Convention Centre, one of the largest conference centres in Europe.
Le Méridien Etoile was relaunched in October 2016 following a substantial renovation, with extensive upgrades to the rooms and banqueting and conference facilities. Henderson Park believes that the recent renovation of the hotel positions Le Méridien Etoile well to benefit from a recovery of the Paris hotel market and will work with the hotel’s management team and employees to create further value from this exceptional asset. The hotel is currently operated by Starwood Hotels under its Le Méridien brand.
Nick Weber, Founding Partner of Henderson Park, said: “Le Méridien Etoile hotel is a superb hotel with significant potential and fits our approach to investments, being an extremely high quality property in a prime location within a top tier or gateway city, but which also offers the opportunity to asset manage further value. We are firm believers in Paris’ strong underlying fundamentals as both a travel destination and an investment location, which, next to London, is one of only two truly global cities in Europe and remains one of the top three cities in the world in terms of tourist numbers.
We would like to thank the Mount Kellett and Cedar teams who have done a tremendous job managing Le Méridien over the last three years, delivering a world class renovation of the hotel. We look forward to continuing the stewardship of this important hotel in the coming years.”
For further information:
FTI Consulting: +44 (0)20 3727 1000
Richard Sunderland, Ellie Sweeney
About Henderson Park
Henderson Park is a real estate investment platform, recently launched by Nick Weber. Henderson Park has raised $500 million from three preeminent cornerstone investors comprising Stone Point Capital, Kuwait Investment Authority and Wafra Investment Advisory Group.
Henderson Park has been established to invest in European real estate, primarily targeting gateway cities and seeking value-add and opportunistic investments in both assets and companies. Henderson Park will pursue opportunities across a wide variety of commercial real estate sectors.
Henderson Park is led by Nick Weber, its Founding Partner and CEO. Nick has over 20 years of real estate experience, including most recently as Head of Europe for Mount Kellett and previously at Goldman Sachs for 14 years, where he was a Partner and Co-Head of its European Special Situations Group.
The information contained herein shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration, exemption from registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.
