CBRE launches investment consulting arm for Hotels

The Capital Advisory team of real estate consultant CBRE has launched a new practice dedicated to the hotels sector. The new unit, headed by Philip Cropper and Ian Corfield, will advise clients across the hotel industry on among others equity and debt funding, mergers & acquisitions and restructuring.

Formerly known as CBRE Real Estate Finance, CBRE Capital Advisors is the real estate investment banking unit of CBRE. The arm supports clients with a range of financial advisory services, including Merger & Acquisition advisory (transactions, due diligence, fairness opinions, etc), Capital Raising (private placements, fundraising, etc), Restructuring (capital structure), IPO advisory and Valuation (corporate valuations, asset management, etc).

CBRE Capital Advisors works across industries, and on the back of its growing work for clients in the hotel & tourism sector, the unit has decided to bundle its sector expertise into a new service line. To lead the new corporate finance initiative focused on the hotels sector the company has appointed Philip Cropper, Vice-Chairman EMEA Hotels, and Ian Corfield, Head of Corporate Finance EMEA Hotels.

Cropper joined CBRE in 1985, working in the Valuation, Central London and Investment Consulting teams. He established CBRE’s UK Real Estate Finance division in 2005, of which he was Chairman. In his new role Cropper will predominantly concentrate on the further growth of CBRE’s Hotels business with a particular focus on strategic advisory work and innovative solutions specifically for European institutional clients.

Corfield joins CBRE with more than 25 years of experience, having previously been Partner at Grant Thornton prior to which he was a director at KPMG. He has advised both borrowers and sponsors alike on the raising, refinancing and restructuring of capital structures across the economic lifecycle.

“The combination of CBRE Hotels’ sector expertise and Capital Advisors’ Corporate Finance capabilities, incorporating Strategic Advisory, Equity Placement and Debt and Structured Finance, is a compelling proposition; one that is focused on our clients’ objectives with a comprehensive advisory and transactional service offering,” says Richard Dakin, Managing Director of CBRE Capital Advisors.

Cropper adds: “The hotels sector has grown exponentially over the last few years, and what was previously seen as an alternative real estate asset has become far more mainstream. As a result there are now a swathe of both new investors and lenders taking an active interest in the sector. We know our clients are increasingly looking for advice at a strategic level that can help not only build on their hotel portfolios across the region, but also derive enhanced value out of them.”