Global Hospitality Report (June 5, 2017)

GST & the Indian Hospitality Sector – Second Fiddle Treatment  
By Achin Khanna and Karan Sahani

In recent events, including the highly contentious highway liquor-ban and the just declared Good & Services Tax by The Government of India, it appears that the Hospitality business has been extended the second fiddle treatment.

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Key Takeaways: AHLA & AAHOA’s – Legislative Action Summit 2017  
By Kirby Payne and Chelsey Leffet

AHLA and AAHOA held the annual Legislative Action Summit in May in Washington, DC. to bring hundreds of people together to call on members of Congress regarding issues important to the industry. The various issues are described in this article.

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Ascott REIT Snaps Up Its Third Manhattan Hotel for S$147 million 

Ascott Residence Trust (Ascott REIT) is acquiring a prime hotel near Times Square in Manhattan for S$146.6 million (US$106 million). The trust’s key-count will increase to over a thousand rooms spread across three properties in New York, with the acquisition of the 224-room DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel New York. Financed by a mixture of debt and perpetual securities, once the hotel is transacted, the United States will become the trust’s fourth-biggest market after Singapore, Japan and China which are its key markets in Asia. The acquisition of the hotel has an EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) yield of 6 per cent, which is expected to increase Ascott REIT's pro forma distribution income in the 2016 fiscal year by almost US$1 million. The improvement will lead to an increase in distribution per unit from S$7.23 cents to about S$7.29 cents on a pro forma basis. The REIT will continue to pursue assets in key gateway cities in the US, Europe, Australia and Japan.

HVS APAC HOSPITALITY NEWSLETTER.
Blackstone Sells Amsterdam DoubleTree to Anbang  

US private equity firm Blackstone has sold the DoubleTree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station, in the Netherlands, to Beijing-based Anbang Group for €350 million (€628,400 per room). The 557-room hotel was the last property to be sold from Blackstone’s eight-unit Mint Hotel portfolio (which it acquired in 2011 from Lloyds Banking Group). This latest deal between the pair brings the amount of overseas property purchased from Blackstone by Anbang to US$9 billion (€8 billion ) in just under three years.

HVS EMEA HOSPITALITY NEWSLETTER.

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