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"&lt;p&gt;\u200B&lt;strong style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;\u200B\u200B\u200B\u200BSINGAPORE, 14 October 2015&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt; - &amp;#160;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;The number of trophy hotel assets changing hands in Asia Pacific has surged in 2015 to levels unseen before, according to JLL's Hotels &amp;amp; Hospitality Group, which last month&amp;#160;closed Asia Pacific's largest ever single hotel transaction, the US$9&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;38&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt; million InterContinental Hong Kong.&amp;#160;\u200B&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;So far in 2015 there have been six&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;recorded transactions of single assets trading, each with a value exceeding US$300 million.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;Mike Batchelor, Managing Director of Investment Sales Asia, who led the landmark InterContinental transaction, said&amp;#58;&amp;#160;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;&amp;quot;Historically we see one to two transactions a year in this 'mega category' due primarily to the ownership profile of trophy hotels across the region. They have often been built and, in many cases, are still owned by a family or a related entity. Assets tend to be passed from one generation to the next and are rarely offered to the market.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;Hotel operators have been an exception to the trend and in 2015 have continued to pursue their asset light strategies, capitalising on the demand for trophy properties. In July, Hilton sold their Sydney hotel under a long term management agreement, similar to InterContinental Hong Kong deal.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;According to Batchelor&amp;#58; &amp;quot;Historically, the profile of investors attracted to such opportunities has almost exclusively been the domain of Sovereign Wealth Funds or High Net Worth Individuals, who tend to hold the assets as part of a wider regional and global diversified property portfolio.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;&amp;quot;In recent times, however, this buyer pool has been widening to now include Chinese insurance companies and private equity firms backed by 'core' funds who are also prepared to trade off the lower returns such investments offer.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;&amp;quot;The lower returns are offset by the long-term growth prospects, given the difficulty of replicating such trophy assets. These landmark properties are almost always located in highly sought-after locations in the region's key gateway cities.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;Chinese investors have become major players in the hotel market over the past 24 months and in 2015 alone have been responsible for acquiring US$5 billion worth of hotel assets outside of China.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=\"line-height&amp;#58;1.6;\"&gt;\u200B&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=\"p1\"&gt;&lt;span class=\"s1\"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;\u200B\u200B&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\" class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\" style=\"width&amp;#58;16.6667%;\"&gt;Date&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\" style=\"width&amp;#58;16.6667%;\"&gt;Hotel&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\" style=\"width&amp;#58;16.6667%;\"&gt;City&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\" style=\"width&amp;#58;16.6667%;\"&gt;Keys&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\" style=\"width&amp;#58;16.6667%;\"&gt;Price (USD)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\" style=\"width&amp;#58;16.6667%;\"&gt;Price Per Key (USD)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Sep 2015&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;InterContinental Hong Kong&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Hong Kong&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;503&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;938 million&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;1.8 million&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Jul 2015&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Four Seasons Hotel Pudong and Four Seasons Place Pudong&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Shanghai&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;187&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;$382.1 million*&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;\u200B&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Jul 2015&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;The Westin Sydney&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Sydney&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;416&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;348.7 million&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;838,000&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Jul 2015&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;The Hilton Sydney&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Sydney&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;579&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;354.1 million&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;612,000&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Jun 2015&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Grand Hyatt Hong Kong (50%)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Hong Kong&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;539&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;1.2 billion**&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;\u200B&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;\u200B&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;Renaissance Harbour View Hong Kong (50%)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;\u200B&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;857&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;\u200B&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;\u200B&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;\u200B&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hong Kong (50%)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;\u200B&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;381&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;\u200B&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class=\"ms-rteTable-default\"&gt;\u200B&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;*The sale price also included the remainder of the unsold residences (total RMB 2.3 billion)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;**Three hotel portfolio sale (total HKD 18.5 billion), 50% interest\u200B&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About JLL&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=\"text-align&amp;#58;justify;\"&gt;JLL (NYSE&amp;#58; JLL) is a professional services and investment management firm offering specialized real estate services to clients seeking increased value by owning, occupying and investing in real estate. A Fortune 500 company with annual fee revenue of $4.7 billion and gross revenue of $5.4 billion, JLL has more than 230 corporate offices, operates in 80 countries and has a global workforce of approximately 58,000. &amp;#160;On behalf of its clients, the firm provides management and real estate outsourcing services for a property portfolio of 3.4 billion square feet, or 316 million square meters, and completed $118 billion in sales, acquisitions and finance transactions in 2014. Its investment management business, LaSalle Investment Management, has $56.0 billion of real estate assets under management. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit &lt;span style=\"text-decoration&amp;#58;underline;\"&gt;www.jll.com&lt;/span&gt;.\u200B&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.ap.jll.com/asia-pacific/en-gb/news/309/trophy-assets-driving-investment-activity-in-asia-pacific-in-2015>