Corinthia to open £270m flagship hotel in London

Corinthia Hotels is to launch a £270m flagship luxury hotel at 10 Whitehall Place in London, after securing £135m of bank funding.

A consortium made up of International Hotel Investments (IHI) of Malta, and two of its principal shareholders Libyan Foreign Investment Company and Nakheel Hotels of Dubai, purchased the Metropole building and the adjoining 10 Whitehall Place from the Crown Estate last year.

The investors have now secured a £135m bank loan raised from a syndication of banks led and arranged by Barclays. The other members of the syndicate include the Libyan Foreign Bank, the Arab Banking Corporation and the Bank of Valletta of Malta.

The bank loan matched the £135m invested as equity by the developers, setting a 50:50 loan to equity gearing on the project.

Corinthia Hotels plans to transform what was the original Metropole Hotel from the 1880s and subsequently part of the Ministry of Defence, into a 300-bedroom luxury hotel, comprising two clusters of restaurants and a bar.

The adjoining 10 Whitehall Place property will be redeveloped to include a luxury spa operated by ESPA, as well as a suite of 12 exclusive residences by the end of 2010.

Corinthia to open first hotel in Liverpool >>

Hotel developer pays £130m for central London site >>

Wyndham and Corinthia sign EMEA management deal >>

Tony Potter to head Corinthia hotel management arm >>

By Gemma Sharkey

E-mail your comments to Gemma Sharkey here.

Caterersearch.com jobs
Looking for a new job? Find your next hotel job here with Caterersearch.com jobs