News | Real Estate

Monday 18th September 2006

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin has advised Hilton International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilton Hotels Corporation, on the sale of its UK based Livingwell Premier health and fitness clubs to Bannatyne Fitness Limited ("Bannatyne") for approximately £90 million on a cash and debt-free basis.

The sale involved 24 standalone clubs located in city centres and large towns across the UK.  The 24 clubs have approximately 80,000 members and 1,800 employees.  Although the standalone health and fitness club business was a successful component of Hilton International’s operations, the sale was part of Hilton’s strategy to concentrate on its international hotel business. 

The sale of Livingwell follows a successful auction process launched in May of this year in the UK.

The SJ Berwin team was led by partners David Ryland who advised on structuring, commercial and real estate issues, Ed Page who advised on real estate issues and partner Peter Anderson who advised on corporate issues.  Wyn Derbyshire, partner advised on pensions and Gretchen Scott, associate on commercial issues.  Robert Thompson of Ward Hadaway advised Bannatyne.

This is the latest of a string of transactions, which SJ Berwin has advised Hilton on.  Earlier this year it advised the Hilton Group on the sale of 15 hotels to Managed Unit Trust for £382.4 million and 11 hotels to a joint venture vehicle Stardon UK Ltd for £111 million.

•  On 1 June 2005 SJ Berwin LLP, an English limited liability partnership, took over the business of the SJ Berwin general partnership.  SJ Berwin LLP or an affiliated undertaking has an office in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich and Paris.
• SJ Berwin LLP was named ‘UK Firm of the Year’ at the 2005 Legal Week Awards.  The award recognised SJ Berwin’s five years of international expansion and its involvement in a series of high quality deals.
  
• SJ Berwin's Real Estate Division totals 118 staff of which 21 are partners in London and 50 associates, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation and Real Estate Funds.  In addition, there are 3 dedicated real estate tax partners and 1 dedicated real estate partner in Paris.  There is an increasing emphasis on cross firm activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate and with the international offices.  The division acts for blue chip clients including British Land, Royal Bank of Scotland, the Hilton Group, Brixton plc, AXA, The Crown Estate, Marks & Spencer and Gazeley.
  
• The Real Estate Team is Legal Business Real Estate Team of the Year 2005.  It was also named "Real Estate Team of the Year" in the Lawyer Magazine Awards 2004, following its advice on the RBS/Canary Wharf transaction the highest-value property investment transaction in the UK in 2004.
  
• Revenue from Real Estate represents approximately 21% of the firm's total revenue in London.