Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) has advised the real estate private equity firm Proprium Capital Partners (‘Proprium’) on the sale of its 35% stake in Motel One Group (‘Motel One’), a leading European affordable design hotel company. The stake was sold to the majority shareholder One Hotels & Resorts GmbH (‘OHR’), led by the founder Dieter Müller, for a purchase price of €1.25bn. Including dividends, this implies a multiple on invested equity in excess of 20 times for the original investors making this an extremely successful real estate private equity transaction.
Principals of Proprium have been active minority shareholders in Motel One over the past 17 years. As a spin out of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Special Situations team, Proprium is focusing on scalable themes with experienced local partners and platforms. Today, Proprium has grown to over $4bn of net assets under management primarily within hospitality, living and logistics strategies with a global platform of six offices across the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
The Motel One Group was founded in 2000 and is based in Munich. Since Proprium’s initial investment, the company has expanded in Germany as well as internationally and currently operates 94 hotels with 26,470 rooms. Including the pipeline, growth to 117 properties with more than 32,000 rooms in 56 cities is secured.
