De Vere owners ‘agree £650m debt for equity swap’
THE Alternative Hotel Group (AHG) has agreed a restructuring deal to reduce its level of debt in the De Vere hotels.
Lloyds Banking Group will swap about £650m of debt in De Vere – which used to be headquartered in Warrington – for preference shares, according to reports.
It also intends to slash the hotel group’s debt burden to about £1bn.
De Vere operates the Daresbury Park Hotel in Warrington, Cheadle House Hotel at Manchester Airport, Mottram Hall in Cheshire and Whites in Bolton among 42 hotels nationwide
It also runs the Greens health and fitness clubs and the Village Hotels and Leisure chain.
The bank has also agreed to extend the group’s loan by two years to December 2013 while also supplying funding to allow the owners to expand.
AHG is a joint venture between HBOS and a group of eight investors led by chief executive Richard Balfour-Lynn.
They bought the De Vere Group for £1.1bn in 2005.
Lloyds, subsequently took control of HBOS in January 2009, and is now itself 43% owned by the taxpayer.
