BLP tax partner, Cathryn Vanderspar, advises on UK’s first hotel REIT

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) played a key role alongside other City advisors in the creation of the UK’s first hotel Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit), by acting for long standing client Marylebone Warwick Balfour Group PLC (MWB) in its GBP 495.1 million sale of the hotel properties in its Malmaison and Hotel du Vin chains.

Commentators have predicted that the new Reit will be valued at GBP 2.6 billion and the transaction is expected to raise over GBP 2 billion of equity for the participating parties, making it one of the largest fundraising exercises ever seen on the London Stock Exchange. It will be one of the first specialist Reits launched since the schemes were introduced in January.

Cathryn Vanderspar (pictured), a BLP tax partner who is an expert in Reits, said: “This is a very exciting transaction and shows just how important the new Reits legislation will be in the market. We expect that the trend of separating the ownership of buildings from the day to day management of asset classes, such as hotels and other leisure facilities, will continue. Recent changes in the Chancellor’s latest budget suggest that similar tax advantages to Reits will be made available also to open ended property funds”.