Hogan Lovells has advised Ivanhoé Cambridge on the disposal of a European portfolio of 18 hotels. Ivanhoé Cambridge is a real estate subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, one of Canada's leading institutional fund managers, and has total assets of CDN$40 billion across Canada, the United States, Europe, Brazil and Asia.  Its portfolio consists mainly of shopping centres, office and multiresidential properties and its operations include real estate investment, development, asset management, leasing and operations.

The 18 hotels are located in Austria (1), Belgium (1), France (1), Germany (11), the Netherlands (2) and Spain (2), and are operated under the IHG brands of Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and Holiday Inn Express.

This is the second European hotel portfolio disposal on which Hogan Lovells has advised Ivanhoé Cambridge in the past 12 months, following its disposal of four boutique hotels in Paris in April 2013.

The Hogan Lovells team advising Ivanhoé Cambridge was led by London corporate partner Nigel Read, Munich real estate partner Martin Guenther and Frankfurt real estate partner Marc Werner, supported by a team of lawyers across eight Hogan Lovells offices.

Commenting on the sale, Nigel said:

"We are pleased to have advised Ivanhoé Cambridge on this second hotel portfolio disposal in the past 12 months. Our pan-European office network and strong hotels team made a significant contribution and we look forward to further opportunities given the current buoyant M&A market for European hotels."

Sylvain Fortier, Ivanhoé Cambridge’s Executive Vice President, Residential, Hotels and Real Estate Investment Funds, commented:

“This transaction is in line with our strategy of rationalizing our overall hotel exposure and reinvesting our capital in our core asset classes and in key markets globally. This sale brings to a conclusion a long-term investment for Ivanhoé Cambridge, and we are very pleased with the transaction process.”