The owners of the Ritz in London have paid almost £700 million (€800 million) to buy three top hotels in the capital, Claridge’s, the Connaught and Berkeley.
The Barclay brothers, who also own the Daily Telegraph and the Littlewoods retail group, acquired the properties from the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), the Irish government agency created to manage the toxic property loans of its bankrupt banks.
The loans had originally been made to the Maybourne Hotel Group by two Irish banks to fund the acquisition of the hotels in 2005. By buying the loans, Sir David Barclay and his brother Sir Frederick have acquired the hotels.
Nama said that it had completed the sale of loans held by the agency which were attached to the Claridges, Connaught and Berkeley hotels.
“The loans had been provided to the Maybourne Hotel Group by two Irish banks to fund the acquisition of the hotels in 2005. Nama acquired the loans at the end of June 2010 from the banks,” it said.
“The loans were sold for in excess of €800 million with Nama recovering 100% of the original value of the loans plus interest.” The loans were acquired by Maybourne Finance, a company controlled by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, Nama confirmed.