Property investors queue up to buy Vector Hospitality assets

Private property investors are queuing up to buy the £2.6b of hotel assets available after the failed launch of Vector Hospitality last week.

Vector was to have the UK hotel industry’s first real estate investment trust (REIT), property investment vehicles that are exempt from corporation and capital gains tax.

According to an interview with Richard Balfour-Lynn in today’s Times, the Vector principle director said there had been interest in the assets that the REIT was due to buy including those owned by his own companies, the Alternative Hotel Group and Marylebone Warwick Balfour.

He told the paper: “These are good assets and there is huge demand for good assets. I’m considering a number of options, but I’m letting the dust settle and catching my breath so I can decide in a calm fashion.”

Vector pulled out of the first hotel REIT on 7 June a day after it dropped the share price for the conversion in a bid to attract sufficient investment.

Its original range of 995p to £11.15 per share dropped to between 875p and 900p, after investors raised doubts about the over-complicated nature of Vector’s management structure.

Pub operator Mitchells & Butlers rules out REIT conversion for now >>

Punch Taverns rules out REIT in short term >>

By Christopher Walton

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