UK: Real estate private equity investment manager ActivumSG, on behalf of ActivumSG Fund VII, working with Global Hospitality Investment Group, has acquired Sutton Point for £21 million.
Sutton Point, located adjacent to Sutton train station, was developed in 2019/20. A third-party forward purchased the build-to-rent components of the wider scheme.
Due to the non-hospitality elements (residential, retail and freehold interest) of Sutton Point being sold, this allowed for the retention of two hotels: a 99-key Ibis hotel and a 59-key Adagio aparthotel.
The retained hospitality assets were financed with a senior loan provided by Leumi UK.
James de Lusignan, UK managing director of ActivumSG, said: “Sutton Point represented a unique opportunity to acquire a recently developed, high-quality asset at significantly below replacement cost. The complexity of this transaction would have dissuaded many other buyers, but we identified significant unlocked potential through our collective skillset and local, in-country presence.”
Saul Goldstein, founder and CEO of ActivumSG, added: “We kept our capital dry in anticipation that the market would soon present compelling opportunities where you could acquire fundamentally sound assets at attractive prices. This is one of them. The hotel-led aspect of the site was a big draw for us, as the hospitality sector has been one of our long-held conviction calls in Europe, and we are actively investigating a number of similar opportunities in the UK, which remains a core market for us.”
James Gibbs, managing director and head of Europe, Global Hospitality Investment Group (GHIG), said: “Sutton Point exemplifies our ability to collaborate with a market-leading private equity firm to source and execute on highly complex hospitality-led investments and is a prime example of a great asset with an impaired balance sheet. Immediate value was created through the back-to-back sales on the non-hospitality component whilst there remains significant additional upside to unlock via optimising hotel operations.”
GHIG currently has approximately $300 million of assets under management. The private equity firm focusses on opportunistic and value-add strategies, targeting single assets, portfolios, and corporate.
