Invesco Real Estate restruc­tures German hotel port­folio with GvW

Invesco Real Estate (Invesco), the global real estate investment manager, has a new management company for 11 of its hotels in Germany: Westmont Hospitality Group will take the baton from insolvent Tidal Operations Germany (TOG) and manage and operate ten hotels of the Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Crowne Plaza brands in Germany from now on. On a transitional basis during the insolvency process, the owner of the parent brand IHG Hotels & Resorts had assumed the management of the Crowne Plaza Hamburg City Alster, the Holiday Inn Munich City Center and the eight Holiday Inn Express Hotels (Berlin City Center, Dortmund, Dusseldorf City Center North, Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt Messe, Cologne-Troisdorf, Cologne-Muelheim and Munich Messe).

GvW Graf von Westphalen advised Invesco acted as lead advisors on all insolvency and restructuring issues associated with the insolvency proceedings over the assets of TOG, including the enforcement of security interests, acquisition of various assets from the insolvency estate and dispute with the former management company. GvW also represented Invesco on the creditors’ committee. TOG is one of the biggest insolvency cases in the hotel industry since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, GvW advised comprehensively on lease law and corporate law issues throughout the process of legal separation from the previous management company TOG. Specifically, the lawyers of the firm advised on the termination of leases, enforcement of security interests (in court) as well as all corporate law implications and disputes pertaining to the joint venture.

With a network of offices across 25 countries, Invesco manages EUR 1,103 billion in assets worldwide and is one of the world’s leading independent investment management firms. The firm’s investment focus in the real estate sector is on global real estate direct investment and real estate shares. In Europe, Invesco Real Estate has eight offices and manages 177 assets across all sectors and in 14 European countries with assets under management of EUR 12.8 billion.

The GvW team advising Invesco on this matter spanned various offices, was headed by Munichbased Partners Dr Christian Zerr (Hospitality/Litigation) and Dr Wolfram Desch (Restructuring/Insolvency) and consisted of Dr Sajanee Arzner, Rebecca Brühl, Dr Richard Lungstras, Sophia Volk (all Hospitality/Litigation), Uli Hochdorfer, Lena Biendl, Ansgar Hain (all Restructuring/Insolvency) as well as Felix Wolf and Laurens Klinkert (both Corporate).