Advising Accor on investment into AGO Hotels

We have advised Accor on their investment into the innovative AGO Hotels platform, including branding arrangements.

AGO has secured an initial nine hotels from the Travelodge CVA which will be branded as Ibis budget hotels with the platform open for further hotels to join into 2021. As well as participating in this innovative vehicle alongside AGO management and the landlords, Accor has also committed seed funding to assist with the platform launch and to provide working capital.

We provided corporate, finance, real estate and commercial support to the Accor team, and helped negotiate the terms of the key transactional, management and funding documentation.

Adrian Whitehead, Accor’s General Counsel for Northern Europe, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen by AGO to help launch their platform. It was a pleasure to work with Taylor Wessing who provided timely and insightful support on the corporate, finance and real estate elements, which we successfully blended with our own internal team’s substantial knowledge of hospitality.”

Real estate partner Mark Rajbenbach said: “This transaction was complex and delivered to a tight timeframe. We're very pleased with the outcome. Congratulations to the Accor and AGO teams."

Our team was led by Mark Rajbenbach with support from: Richard Bursby (Head of Hotels & Leisure) and James Homan (senior associate) from our corporate team; James Watkins (senior associate) from our employment, pensions & mobility group; Jonathan Marks (partner) and Gabriel Estevez (senior associate) from our banking and finance team; Victoria Butcher (senior associate) from our real estate group.