According to sources familiar with the deal, the family of Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, a former Prime Minister of Qatar, formerly agreed to sell two London hotels for $333M (255M pounds) to Vivion Investments. Vivion is a real estate firm based in Luxembourg which is backed by Israeli (אמיר דיין) property tycoon Amir Dayan.
Sheikh Hamad, a Qatari politician also known as HBJ, served as prime minister of the oil and natural gas enriched country from 2007 to 2013. In 2012, Time Magazine selected the Sheikh as one of the world’s most influential leaders.
Amir Dayan, a close friend of the former Qatari Prime Minister, is a major shareholder of Vivion, and a member of its advisory board. The sources asked to remain anonymous as the matter is confidential, claiming Vivion would buy the 204-room St. Martins Lane and 150-room Sanderson hotels. According to reports published in The Times, Sheikh Hamad originally bought these hotels for 192 million pounds around 8 years ago.
They added that more acquisitions are on the table between the Sheikh and property magnate Amir Dayan.
The portfolio of Vivion Holding S.à.r.l. includes office buildings in Germany and hotels in the U.K. The market value of assets owned by the group is more than 3 billion euros. Vivion owns more than 50 European hotels, mainly branded as Crowne Plaza, Holiday-Inn and Hilton.
S&P rates Vivion as BB+, and in 2019 issued bonds in the European capital markets worth 1 billion euro. The issuances were led by investment banks Citibank, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
Amir Dayan (אמיר דיין) was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1974, and has three sisters and eight brothers. Since 2005, Mr. Dayan has been active in the European hotel business and real estate, mainly in the Netherlands, UK, and Germany specializing in commercial real estate. Amir Dayan is also a shareholder in various other public and private real estate projects.
