Spanish PE Shop Buys Mexico Hotel

Chicago-based real estate investment trust Strategic Hotels has sold its 240-room Four Seasons hotel in Mexico City to Barcelona-based private equity shop Meridia Capital for $54m. According to the seller, the deal value is about 13.8x 2009 Ebitda, which it deems “an attractive price in an extremely difficult environment,” given the impact of the swine flu virus on the country. The buyer, which owns hotel properties in Santiago, Sao Paulo and Mexico City as well as in Asia and Europe, paid for the Mexico hotel with equity from its Meridia Capital Hospitality I fund, which closed in 2007 with EUR150m.