CMS advises Fattal Hotels on Jurys Inn acquisition

London, 13 December 2017. CMS has acted for Fattal Hotels, Israel's largest hospitality organisation, on its acquisition of the 36 hotel operating businesses and brand of the Jurys Inn Group. Pandox AB are acquiring the 20 freehold and long leasehold properties and will grant operating leases to Fattal Hotels. Pandox are also acquiring the property and operations of the Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow hotel. Pandox and Fattal together paid £800 million for the group.

Fattal Hotels is an existing client of CMS, based in Israel with 38 hotels across Israel and mostly Continental Europe, with six existing hotels in the UK. This deal will add a further 35 hotels to Fattal’s portfolio in the UK and Ireland (plus one hotel in Prague) and will add a new brand to their group.

The CMS team was led by CMS’ Head of Hotels & Leisure Tom Page, with support from Matthew Willoughby and Toby Lovett (Corporate), Jonathan Lewis and Scott Curtis (Real Estate), Patrick Donegan and Bruce Gavin (Finance), Carl Fennessy and Rachel Harwood and Mike Walsh (Commercial/IP), San Dames and Tim Dobbing (Tax) Alistair Hill and Matthew Boyle (Pensions), and Jacqueline Vallat (Competition). Fattal were also advised by Gornitzky & Co in Israel and McCann Fitzgerald in Ireland. Freshfields acted for Pandox.

Tom Page comments: “The three-way nature of the transaction between the Seller, Pandox and Fattal and meant the deal was particularly challenging and we were given a very short timescale in which to complete the transaction after being given exclusivity. CMS’ market-leading expertise in the hotel sector, supported by the depth of resourcing resulting from our merger earlier in 2017 meant that CMS was able to rise to, and meet, these challenges and deliver a strategically important transaction on time for our client.”

David Fattal, CEO of Fattal Hotels Group added: “For us, the acquisition of Jurys Inn hotels represents a huge step forward in our growth. With this, we have the opportunity to further expand and strengthen our expertise and brand awareness in Europe. We look forward to this new challenge”.