AAIM, the property fund backed by Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and pop impresario Simon Cowell, looks set to buy 37 hotels in two separate transactions worth about £600m. The Times

AAIM is believed to be in exclusive talks to acquire a package of 19 former Queens Moat Houses hotels from Goldman Sachs’s Whitehall Funds for £400m, and 18 hotels owned by Kew Green Hotels for £200m.

HBOS is supplying debt funding for both purchases.