Hotel group owned by US hedge fund set to be awarded quarantine contract

The hotel group set to be awarded the contract for the mandatory hotel quarantine system is owned by a US hedge fund.

According to reports in RTE News, Tifco Hotel Group will provide accommodation and food for those who have to quarantine upon entering the country.

Tifco, who operates 24 hotels including the Crowne Plaza in Blanchardstown, the Holiday Inn Express near Dublin airport and Clontarf Castle, were bought by US investment fund Apollo Global Management in October 2018.

Apollo Global manages capital for hundreds of fund investors in dozens of countries, including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, charitable foundations, and financial institutions.

Apollo Global Management, who are one of the largest vulture funds operating in Ireland, bought a portfolio of Irish home loans from Lloyds Bank in 2013 for €307m.

Royal Bank of Scotland sold a number of buy-to-let and commercial property-related loans to Apollo Global and Deutsche Bank in 2015 for €448m as part of Project Finn.

According to reports in the Irish Independent last month, AIB have chosen Apollo Global Management as the preferred bidder for a loan portfolio known as Project Oak which has a par value of about €1bn.

In May 2020 Apollo Global Management suspended the sale of three of its Irish hotels in a deal reportedly worth €184m.

Hotel operator Pandox was in talks to buy the Crowne Plaza in Blanchardstown, the Holiday Inn Express near Dublin airport and the Crowne Plaza Dundalk in Co Louth.

However, the deal failed to progress ‘given the uncertainty Covid-19 has created for the hospitality sector,’ according to property website React News.