Ott Ventures, the private equity arm and fund management platform of the family office of Orco Property Group & MaMaison Hotels & Residences founder Ott Properties, announced the launch of its first hotel fund. This pan European investment vehicle targets a total AuM of €500 million with a planned LTV of 50 percent It will invest across Europe with a focus on the main Central European markets being Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary as well as in Germany and Austria.
Velvet hotel fund will invest in properties from budget to trophy assets, in city-centre locations, both in existing properties and developments. It has already identified several opportunities for its seed portfolio.
Jean-François Ott, founder and CEO at Ott Ventures, commented “This is clearly a “special situation moment” for contrarian investors like us. We were the first ones to accumulate assets in Prague in the 90s and in Berlin in mid-2000. We worked with EBRD on developing MaMaison Hotels & Residences in the region and later teamed up with AIG. We were also the first international player to invest in the island of Hvar in Croatia with Suncani Hvar. The city is now one of the most popular resort destinations in Europe. As two key players in their respective regions, both MaMaison Hotels & Residences and Suncani Hvar were acquired by CPI Property Group in 2016. We are now convinced of the long-term growth potential and strong fundamentals of the hospitality sector and the recovery post-Covid crisis.
In a momentum of weak competition with few new products, alongside an expected increase in regional ADRs we believe it is the best time for us to launch our first hotel fund. Over the last 3 decades, our team has worked on more than 300 transactions worth more than €4 billion in both listed products and direct investments, with €1 billion only in hotels. The current market conditions will allow us to have access to attractive investment opportunities by bringing much-needed equity or hybrid equity to investors or operators facing cash flow challenges. With 30 years of experience in turning around hotels and deploying capital I have put together a team of hotel experts with extensive experience in Central Europe which is our geographical focus, but we will remain open to investing in other major European markets should we find opportunities that match our knowledge, strategy and target returns.”
Nicolas Horky joined Ott Ventures to manage its new hotel fund. Nicolas has 15 years of experience in real estate, specializing in the hotel asset class. He started his career at Orco Property Group in Prague where he worked for both MaMaison Hotels & Residences and Suncani Hvar Hotels. He later set up SNH Consulting, a real estate consulting firm based in Prague and covering the Central European real
estate market. In 2015 he joined Principal Real Estate Europe’s hotel team in London where he held the positions of the asset manager and later transactions manager.
