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1. GMH acquires Signature Hotels and four London hotels
Zurich-based hotel-management firm Grand Metropolitan Hotels has acquired London-based Signature Hotels and its four London hotels for an undisclosed price. The hotels acquired include the 45-room Park Avenue Baker Street; 173-room Park Avenue Bayswater Inn Hyde Park; 154-room Queens Park Premier London Hyde Park; and 46-room Signature Townhouse Hyde Park. The deal also includes two Signature hotels under development in India that are due to open in late 2026. GMH has approximately 450 hotels in its management portfolio, with another 96 in development.
The deal, according to a press release on GMH’s website, also marks GMH’s debut in the United Kingdom, and its acquired pipeline in India will also provide for it a new country market. Signature Hotels CEO Ramesh Arora will join GMH on its board of directors.
2. Japan’s Polaris, Minacia consolidate three brands into Koko Hotels
Japanese hotel owner-operators Polaris Holdings and Minacia are merging three hotel brands — Koko Hotels, Hotel Wing International and Tenza Hotel under one umbrella to be named Koko Hotels. The announcement added the move makes the management entity “now one of the top 10 domestic hotel brands in Japan by scale, comprised of 63 hotels with 9,489 rooms.” According to CoStar, Polaris owns 35 hotels and 5,803 rooms in Japan and the Philippines. It also manages hotels branded under Best Western International and SureStay.
In May 2024, real estate investment trust Star Asia Group acquired 100% of the shares of Tokyo-based Minacia, a deal that comprised 39 hotels, 5,180 rooms and two of the Hotel Wing International and Tenza Hotel brands.
3. Maldives’ Universal launches Niva brand, rebrands management division
The Maldives-based Universal Enterprises, the parent company of Universal Resorts, has made two changes to its organizational structure. The first is that it has rebranded its hotel management division to be called Versa Hospitality, and secondly it has launched a new lifestyle-hotel brand named Niva Hotels & Resorts.
Universal Enterprises’ managing director Ahmed Umar Maniku said in a news release the moves are strategic ones that will transform the “independent family business from a respected and largely B2B-focused resort owner and operator into a globally recognized, consumer-centric hospitality brand designed for future growth into international markets.”
The brand Niva is to begin life by grouping five Universal Resorts’ properties, four in The Maldives — now named Niva Dhigali; Niva Kurumba; Niva Kuramathi, and Niva Velassaru — and one in fellow Indian Ocean destination the Seychelles — Niva Labriz. An upcoming asset in the Seychelles, the Niva Aria, will be included when it opens next year. Its other hotels and resort assets will be grouped together in another new entity, soft brand Verso Collection.
4. Landsec exits second £200 million hotel project
London-based real estate investment trust Landsec, the second largest in the United Kingdom, has exited its second London property valued at more than £200 million ($264 million) this year, CoStar News’ Paul Norman reports. In a deal with Manchester-based Latium Enterprises, Landsec sold a £200 million office development in the Southwark area of the capital, a site that JLL said has been acquired “for redevelopment as a ‘best in class’ hotel.”
Norman added that Landsec is “speeding ahead with its London office disposals. In full-year results published in May, the REIT confirmed it was accelerating its shift away from offices towards retail and residential.”
In August, Landsec sold its office building 102 Petty France in the Westminster district of London to hotel owner Arora Group for £245 million. At the time, Arora’s Chief Operating Officer Sanjay Arora told CoStar News the property could be converted into a hotel.
5. Jamaica, Cuba reeling after Hurricane Melissa’s onslaught
Flooding, stranded citizens and damaged communities are the principal effects of the ferocity of Hurricane Melissa, the Category 5 storm that ripped through Jamaica and Cuba this week before going out into the Atlantic Ocean. According to Jamaican authorities, 19 people were killed by the hurricane, The New York Times reports. Melissa is heading to Bermuda, but it is expected the storm will have lessened in intensity by the time it arrives.
Francisco Pichón, the United Nations' resident coordinator for Cuba, told the NYT that approximately 2 million Cubans — about one-fifth of its population — are in urgent need of shelter, food, water and health care.
Jamaican officials said the town of Black River, where the hurricane made landfall in Jamaica, is “now unrecognizable to the people who knew it best” and that “more than 400,000 Jamaicans were still without power on [Oct. 30],” the newspaper added.