Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund is investing US$475 million (Dh1.74 billion) in a Goldman Sachs hotel portfolio, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The deal is part of a broader restructuring for Goldman Sachs' Whitehall Real Estate Funds, one of the bank's largest hotel portfolios. It includes refinancing $1.42bn of debt due in April and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will inject $475m for a preferred equity stake.
Deutsche Bank will also refinance the debt through a $975m loan. Deutsche Bank declined to comment on its role.
The refinancing eliminates impending due dates for debt on a portfolio of 138 hotels that Whitehall bought from the North Dakota hotelier Gary Tharaldson in 2006.
The refinancing also covers 30 mid-sized hotels bought by Whitehall in 2007 from CNL Hotels & Resorts, the paper reported. In total, the fund has restructured about $18bn of debt on its commercial real estate holdings since January 2010, The Wall Street Journal said.
Goldman Sachs was unavailable for comment. A spokesman for The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority declined to comment yesterday.
