Mohari Hospitality Ltd is in exclusive talks to purchase Venice’s five-star Hotel Bauer, according to people familiar with the matter, beating other bidders including billionaire Bernard Arnault.
Mohari is offering to buy the property, located on the Grand Canal, for €309 million ($335 million), according to one of the people with direct knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified given the information is private. Established by former PokerStars co-founder Mark Scheinberg, the company focuses on luxury properties and its existing European investments include the five-star Four Seasons hotel in Madrid.
King Street Capital Management has been running the process to sell the Venetian hotel, one of the erstwhile jewels of the Signa real estate empire founded by Rene Benko, Bloomberg previously reported. Following the enforcement of a junior-ranking loan linked to the hotel, filings show that funds administered by King Street took control of shares in a Signa company that owned Hotel Bauer in May.
Spokespeople for King Street and Mohari declined to comment.
The hotel had been undergoing a major renovation before a cash crunch at Signa Prime Selection brought construction to a halt, putting any prospective buyer in the position of needing to pour in additional funds to complete the project. The property has also become a stark reminder of the legal complexities involved in the unwinding of Benko’s now-insolvent sprawling real estate empire.
The highly-coveted Bauer attracted bids from Arnault — founder of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE – as well as from sovereign wealth funds and international developers, some of the people said. Special situations fund Attestor together with Germany’s Schoeller Group also submitted a rival offer, according to the people.
Representatives for Schoeller and Attestor declined to comment.
Schoeller, founded by the German industrialist family of the same name, had originally agreed to purchase a portfolio of Italian assets including the Hotel Bauer with administrators of Signa’s flagship property unit. However, lenders’ move to seize the property meant that the deal was unable to close, according to the insolvency report from Signa Prime, seen by Bloomberg News.
A spokesperson for Signa Prime’s insolvency administrator declined to comment, saying the insolvency process is private.
The Hotel Bauer is one of many luxury assets set to change hands as the insolvencies of Signa’s major property units advance. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has made an offer to buy Signa Prime’s stake in the Selfridges department store properties in the UK, while Thai conglomerate Central Group has taken over the KaDeWe in Berlin.
