Credit Suisse restructured one of its real estate funds and sold landmark Palace Hotel in Lucerne to a Chinese investor from Shenzhen.
Credit Suisse Real Estate Fund Hospitality sold the five star Palace hotel along the shores of Lake Lucerne to Chinese investor Yunfeng Gao (pictured below), according to a company statement. The bank didn't say how much it received for the hotel, but sources in Lucerne talk about a sum in the double digits.
The hotel was known to be for sale and people in Lucerne demanded a Swiss solution. To no avail.
New Owner With Swiss Track Record
The new owner is an investor from Shenzhen, an economic powerhouse in China. The transaction took place December 9, 2015 and takes effect on December 31st, 2015. The Victoria-Jungfrau Collection will continue running the hotel.
The sale was an important step for the Credit Suisse fund, Christophe Piffaretti, the manager of the fund, was cited as saying in the Credit Suisse statement. Yunfeng Gao was a buyer who would invest in Lucerne as a tourist region and take care of the long tradition of the hotel.
Fund Makeover
The divestment offered a good opportunity to reduce the share of luxury hotels in the CS REF Hospitality real estate fund. With the money, the fund will reduce borrowed capital and broaden the geographic distribution of the portfolio, CS said.
The focus of the fund is on hospitality objects already yielding rent, such as congress centers, student homes, hotels, residences and buildings used in the health care industry.
Yunfeng Gao, 47, is the owner of Han's Laser, a technology company based in China, employing 8,000. He invests his money in real estate and tourist centers both in China and elsewhere, for instance in the Swiss canton of Obwalden, where he invested in two new hotels in Melchsee-Frutt. He also has a project for the Europaeischer Hof Hotel in Engelberg, which will receive a 100-million-makeover turning it into a luxury hotel.
