Transaction

German Meliá changes hands

In Dresden, Germany, Norpexal Holding SA & Fibona has sold the Innside Dresden of Meliá Hotels & Resorts Group to Swiss investment company EPH European Property Holdings. The transaction from the buy-side was brokered by Tranio, an international real estate investment platform, who found a client with the terms representing the current market situation.

The hotel includes 180 rooms, 46 underground parking spaces, a spa, restaurant, 261 square metres of retail space and meeting rooms for up to 230 people. It was developed, planned and built by the Wiesbaden-based Developer Fibona 10 years ago and is located in the historic centre of Dresden on the southern bank of River Elbe, very close to the main city attractions and Dresden Airport.

“The hotel is a high-quality asset in a prime location with a good tourist flow and a strong brand of the operator,” George Kachmazov, managing partner of Tranio, said. “This is a good off-market deal. This acquisition is a positive signal of market recovery. I think that the German hotel market will be one of the first to recover from the consequences of the coronacrisis: this will be facilitated by cheap leverage and active support from the government.”

Dresden is the capital of the German state of Saxony and is one of Germany's largest university and college cities. In 2019, its GDP growth was 1.2 percent (2019) compared to the German national average growth of 0.6 percent. The city is a popular tourist destination in Germany both for domestic and international visitors, due to its extensive amenities and architecture ranging from a beautiful, historic city centre to its baroque churches and museums. In 2019, Dresden recorded 2.3m arrivals and 4.7m overnight stays, an increase of 3.1 percent and 1.6 percent respectively on the previous year.