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InterContinental vies for Principal hotels; Lendlease eyes London projects

S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of European real estate news stories and more published throughout the week. Please note that some entries may have links to third-party sources that may require a subscription.

Hotel hunting

* InterContinental Hotels Group PLC has partnered with an unnamed investor to bid in the £1.2 billion auction of Principal Hotel Co., The (U.K.) Times reported. U.S.-based Starwood Capital Group is divesting the hotel company, which owns the luxury Principal and De Vere hotel brands.

InterContinental is understood to be particularly interested in the Principal brand's 12 U.K. city-center hotels. If InterContinental and its partner win the auction, the latter is expected purchase the properties, with the U.K. hotel giant proceeding to rebrand the Principal brand hotel assets under its InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Kimpton brands.

Looking in London

* Australian property and infrastructure group Lendlease Corp. Ltd. and Starwood Capital Group are in talks to buy development rights for the 7 million-square-foot, mixed-use Silvertown Quays project in Royal Docks, east London. The seller is a consortium selected as development partner by the Greater London Authority in 2012, Bloomberg News reported, citing people with knowledge of the plan.

The £3.5 billion scheme secured planning approval from former London Mayor Boris Johnson in 2015.

* Lendlease is also one of the two finalists hoping to partner with housing association Peabody on its £4 billion Thamesmead Waterfront development in South London, Construction News reported.

Seller's zone

* Meyer Bergman settled the roughly €300 million sale of the Galeria Katowicka shopping center in Katowice, Poland, to Malaysia's Employees' Pension Fund, PropertyEU reported.

The three-story asset spans 47,500 square meters and houses 200 tenants, including C&A, Douglas, Peek & Cloppenburg, TK Maxx and Zara.

* New York-based NorthStar Realty Europe Corp. agreed to divest its Maastoren office property in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for about $190 million.

The sale price is slightly above the asset's independent valuation as at the end of 2017. The Europe-focused commercial real estate company had mandated Cushman & Wakefield Inc. in 2016 to market the property.

Taking steps to take over

* German residential landlord Vonovia SE is one step closer to its planned takeover of Austria's BUWOG AG after securing acceptances from 73.8% of the latter's shareholders.

The initial acceptance period ended March 12. BUWOG shareholders will be able to tender their shares at €29.05 apiece during the additional acceptance period from March 16 to June 18.

Setting targets

* Mayfair Capital Investment Management established the MC Thematic Growth Fund, a closed-ended U.K. real estate fund with an investment capacity of as much as £400 million.

The fund, which is targeting a return of 8% to 10% per year, has already secured £100 million of equity commitments.

* Housing fund Urbeo Residential is hoping to raise up to €400.0 million to inject into Ireland's private rental sector, The Irish Times reported.

The fund will primarily focus on low- and middle-income housing in Dublin, while also seeking investment opportunities in other Irish cities.

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Amisha Mehta contributed to this report.