Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts, advised by ATIS REAL Weatheralls, has completed the sale of three four-star hotels for more than £45 million in two separate transactions. The luxury hotels group has sold two hotels - the 199-bedroom Le Méridien Queens's hotels in City Square, Leeds and the 218-bedroom Le Méridien Warwick (formerly known as the Chesford Grange Hotel) - to Quintessential Hotels, a new hotel investment group headed by Michael Purtill, managing director of Paramount Group of Hotels.

Both the Leeds and Warwick hotels feature extensive conference and banqueting facilities and fit the Quintessential search criteria for large hotels in seven-day trading.

Quintessential is backed by venture capitalist Alchemy, Michael Purtill and the senior management of Paramount will run the hotels though management contracts.

In a separate deal, Le Meridian has sold the 128-bedroom Le Meridian Chester (formerly The Queen Hotel) to Feathers Group, the north-west hotel, catering and events group, for around £6 million.

The Queen Hotel in Chester is the fourth from the portfolio of former Principal Hotels identified as non-core by Le Méridien and sold by ATIS REAL Weatheralls. It becomes the eighth hotel in the Feathers portfolio and the company's second hotel in Chester, where it already owns the nearby Westminster Hotel.

Le Méridien is a global hotel group with a portfolio of 145 luxury and upscale hotels (41,630 rooms) in 55 countries worldwide. The majority of it properties are located in the world's top cities and resorts throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. The company also enjoys a strategic alliance with JAL-owned Nikko Hotels, providing loyal guests access to an additional 42 properties around the world. Headquartered in London, the group was purchased by Nomura International plc's Principal Finance Group in July 2001 and merged with Principal Hotels, acquired by Nomura in February 2001. Bartels was appointed CEO in July.

Julia Clark
Corporate Public Relations Director
+44(0) 207 150 7737
Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts