By Vanessa Cavasinni, editor Australian Hotelier
Lantern Hotels Group has announced the sale of General Gordon Hotel in Sydenham, an inner west suburb of Sydney.
The freehold and the venue was sold in an off-market deal for $18.1m, representing an astounding 69 per cent premium on the 30 June 2016 book value. The sale was handled by Andrew Jolliffe of Ray White Hotels.
The identity of the purchaser has not been disclosed, however Jolliffe did suggest that the buyer was an experienced hotelier in the Sydney region.
This is the second last venue to be sold from the Lantern Hotels portfolio, since shareholders approved a sell-down strategy in November 2016. While in the first half of 2016, Lantern pursued a strategy of selling hotels deemed ‘non-core’, in October Chairman Graeme Campbell and CEO John Osborne recommended the sell-down of the entire portfolio to considerably reduce the company’s remaining $40 million worth of debt.
Since the strategy was approved, has sold most of their remaining hotels, including Uncle Bucks and Ambarvale Hotels in western Sydney, the Courthouse Hotel in Cairns, Five Dock Hotel and the Waterworks Hotel in Botany.
General Gordon Hotel is the penultimate to be sold, with Crown Hotel in Surry Hills also up for sale. It was placed on the market in late January.