Harrogate based commercial law firm Davidson Webber LLP acted for Peel Hotels plc in the sale of the business and assets of the Avon Gorge Hotel, Bristol to New Light Hotels Limited part of the Swire Properties Group for around £15.5m. Berwin Leighton Paisner (Damien Jackson) in London acted for New Light Hotels. Grant Thornton in Leeds provided tax and accounting advice to Peel Hotels on the disposal.
The team at Davidson Webber was lead by Neil Large (corporate partner) and Russell Davidson (commercial property partner) with employment and banking support provided by other team members David Hill and Louise Rea respectively.
The London-based Peel Hotels Group is one of a number of long established Aim listed clients of Davidson Webber LLP. It was listed on the AIM market in the spring of 1998 when Robert Peel bought the Bull Hotel in Peterborough. Robert had worked as Chief Executive of Mount Charlotte Hotels, renamed Thistle Hotels, from 1977-1998. That company, under his stewardship, grew from a £300,000 company to the second largest Hotel company in the United Kingdom and the largest in London with over 6,500 bedrooms.
The Peel Hotels Group currently operates eight hotels throughout the UK : the Bull Hotel Peterborough; Caledonian Hotel Newcastle Upon Tyne; Crown & Mitre Hotel Carlisle; George Hotel Wallingford; Golden Lion Hotel Leeds; King Malcolm Hotel Dunfermline; Midland Hotel Bradford; and the Strathdon Hotel Nottingham.
Russell Davidson commented “We have acted for Peel Hotels plc for many years and have helped them grow and expand their portfolio of hotels and leisure venues through a number of corporate and property sales and acquisitions. We were delighted to work with them when their chairman (Robert Peel) approached us about the prospective sale of the Avon Gorge in Bristol. Once heads were agreed and signed the deal was closed in around 6 weeks which is pretty good going for a deal of this size”.
Neil Large said “This sort of deal is a prime example of the sort of deals we are now pulling back from going to larger firms in Leeds and other UK cities. Many corporate clients are attracted to the benefits offered by the smaller law firm based outside the big cities, and we are seeing an increasing number deals of all sizes coming our way. To do here in Harrogate the quality of corporate and commercial work that we are currently involved in is really exciting.”
