RREEF has made its first push into the UK regional hotel sector buying the Four Pillars Hotel Group and setting up a joint venture to further expand the business.
The real estate arm of Deutsche Bank bought the three and four star regional hotel company for an undisclosed amount in a deal that completed on Tuesday. The portfolio comprises five hotels in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire including a 220-bedroom conference and spa hotel in the Cotswold Water Park.
Four Pillars was founded by hotel entrepreneur Brian Murtagh in 1973 who will retain a minority equity position in the company. Murtagh, and his three partners - developer Peter Morris, building contractor Jon Ede, and chief executive officer Charles Holmes, have also set up a joint venture with RREEF to identify and build further hotels.
The joint venture already plans its first hotel in Harwell, Oxfordshire and has a number of other sites in the pipeline.
Entering the hotel sector is another diversification into the alternative property sector for RREEF which in April this year became the first fund manager to exploit the property potential of caravan parks with the purchase of a 58 acre Roydon Mill caravan park in Essex for its UK Property Ventures Fund 3.
