Munich. Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Bank and Aareal Bank have concluded a contract with Capital Partners for the refinancing of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Moscow at a price of over 160 million Euros. At the same time, the sale of the Hotel Arts in Barcelona, another Ritz-Carlton Hotel, was completed to become the biggest single real estate transaction in Spanish history.

Muenster/Osnabrueck. The brochure leaves many questions unanswered. This is why, the fondstelegramm.de online service cautions against a fund that plans to erect and then rent an airport hotel at Muenster/Osnabrueck Airport. Arcadia Nord GmbH is the lessee and operator of the hotel. It will conclude a franchise agreement with the Holiday Inn chain.

London. InterContinental Hotels Group plc has agreed to sell a portfolio of seven InterContinental branded hotels located in Continental Europe to the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds. IHG previously announced in January 2006 that these hotels had been put on the market.

Berlin. Open property funds are ever more on the look out for lucrative investments promising high gains and at the same time securing portfolio diversity in terms of location and usage. Even the Commerz Grundbesitz Investment Company, the real estate subsidiary of the Commerzbank plc, is no exception. Although their activity in the hotel industry is limited, CGI is open for new projects with well known operators.

Augsburg. A subsidiary of an Israeli real estate company has just a few days ago put its signature to a contract for the purchase of up to ten hotels in a range of German cities including Munich, Bonn, Frankfurt and Essen.

London. Hospitality Europe B.V., the pan-European hotel owning and asset management company, completed its sale to BRE/Hospitality Europe Holding B.V., an entity owned by funds managed by The Blackstone Group. The sale includes wellknown properties, such as the Sheraton Airport Hotels in Frankfurt and Amsterdam and the Pulitzer in Amsterdam.

Berlin. Hotels as lucrative and "nice" investments are appreciated by open investment funds. As additions to the portfolio they are appreciated by initiators and investors, as they guarantee the desired mixture of office buildings, city quarters, shopping malls and commercial areas. "This well-balanced portfolio is especially interesting for long-term oriented investors," says Ingo Hartlief, Board member of Deutsche Immobilienfonds AG. Difa is one of those investment fund companies that are open-minded about the hotel industry.

New York. The U.S. hotel market is sizzling. Hard statistical evidence gleaned from interviews of U.S. hotel investors and lenders suggest that domestic hotel markets are at all-time height. But there is increasing evidence that the industry may be closer to the peak of this cycle than the beginning.