Abu Dhabi fund close to buying 42 Marriott hotels

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is close to buying 42 hotels managed by Marriott International Inc. and controlled by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The sovereign wealth fund has been a preferred bidder since last summer and the sale includes hotels in London and Edinburgh, the person said, asking not to be identified because the deal has not been made public.

ADIA may pay GBP 640 million ($992 million) for the hotels which RBS acquired after the borrowers defaulted on a loan in 2011, the Times of London reported on February 16, without saying how it obtained the information.

ADIA and Qatar Investment Authority were bidding for the Marriott hotels, the Sunday Times reported in July.

Erik Portanger, an ADIA spokesman, and Adam Holden, spokesman for administrators Ernst & Young, declined to comment. Nobody was immediately available to comment at RBS.

ADIA, which doesn’t invest in the UAE or typically in the Gulf Arab region, had assets valued at $328 billion at the end of 2008, according to economists at New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, the latest available data.

The fund manages global investments including equities, fixed income, real estate and private equity.