IHG's sale of Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport hotel complete

Colin Biggers & Paisley's Hotels, Tourism and Hospitality team lead by Duane Keighran has advised IHG on the sale of its leasehold interest in the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport to Pelligra Group

The decision to sell the leasehold interest in the hotel supports IHG's global asset-light strategy, which ensures its business model is focused on what it does best: franchising and managing hotels, with its business partners owning the bricks and mortar. 

Since 2003, IHG has completed the sale of almost 200 hotels globally as part of their move to an asset-light business model, and the sale of the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport lease continues that global approach.

The team at Colin Biggers & Paisley advised upon all aspects of the sale including structuring, licensing,  employment and the ongoing management of the property. This included preparing and negotiating all documentation associated with the sale of the leasehold interest and the business, in addition to preparing a tailored suite of management agreements between IHG and Pelligra for IHG to manage the hotel post completion and carry out a refurbishment of the property.  

Partner and head of Hotels, Tourism and Hospitality Duane Keighran, said the deal involved the careful consideration of a number of complex legal issues and he was delighted to assist IHG with this important deal.

"The tenure of the property was held by way of leasehold interest meaning that we had to liaise with Melbourne Airport Authority. This presented its own unique challenges as the leasehold interest, being crown land, was subject to its own specific rules,"

The transaction also required the team to work through a number of intricate moving layers in order to achieve completion.

"What was interesting about this transaction was that it was multi-faceted. We had the sale aspect and the post-sale aspect of IHG managing the hotel after the completion of the sale with a significant refurbishment being undertaken by the purchaser to bring the hotel back up to a really good standard. All parties worked together to achieve the common goal of reinvigorating a fantastically located property. The transaction was assisted greatly by the relationship between IHG and Pelligra, who are developing further hotels together, and our team greatly enjoyed being a part of this transaction for IHG." 

The Colin Biggers & Paisley team was led by Partner and Head of Hotels, Tourism and Hospitality Duane Keighran and supported by Special Counsel Georgia Arya, Solicitors Elyse Di Stefano and John Momitsas, and Employment Partner Meghan Kavanagh.

For more information please contact Linda Branton on 02 8281 4594 or linda.branton@cbp.com.au.

About Colin Biggers & Paisley

Colin Biggers & Paisley was founded over a century ago. Today we are a legal practice with 69 partners and 480 employees. We are highly regarded for our expertise in construction, insurance, property, government, commercial litigation and dispute resolution, banking and finance, corporate and commercial, employment and safety, planning and environment, restructuring and insolvency, transport and logistics. We act for major corporations, financial institutions, insurance companies, government departments and individuals. We have both the capacity and the expertise to deliver on complex national and multinational projects.

Colin Biggers & Paisley is based in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. Through our growing Middle East Practice and our affiliation with ADVOC Asia, ADVOC International, ADVOC Europe and ADVOC Latin America, we are able to offer access to quality legal advice around the globe.
We launched the Colin Biggers & Paisley Foundation in 2015, with a core focus on promoting and protecting the rights of women and children in Australia and abroad through an innovative mix of pro bono legal services, volunteering and charitable contributions.