The entire Sentrim Hotel portfolio comprising of eight lodges and hotels across the country has been put up for sale 40 years after it was founded.
According to Knight Franks Head of Agency Anthony Havelock, the entire portfolio is being sold in excess of Sh5 billion shillings. Interested buyers can buy the whole portfolio or bid for individual property.
Knight Frank, a real estate management firm has been tasked with the sale of the property which includes 680 Hotel located in the city centre.
Others are Hotel Boulevard, Sentrim Amboseli, Sentrim Mara, Sentrim Samburu, Royal Castle Hotel in Mombasa, Sentrim Elementaita and Sentrim Tsavo.
The eight hotels apart from Royal Castle and Sentrim Elementaita sit on 190.48 acres of lease hold land. Sentrim Mara and Amboseli occupy the biggest chunk of the land at 91.3 and 58 acres respectively.
While Havelock did not disclose the real names behind the owners of the property, he said it is owned by a group of private families who did not wish to be named. However, according to LinkedIn, Jac Patel owns the hotel.
“The directors are approaching retirement age and there is no one within their family willing to inherit the property hence the reason for the sale,” Havelock said.
Even so, the 2018 hospitality report released by Jumia Travel shows that most local brands are facing competition from international hotel brands that have set up in the country.
The report shows that atleast 13 new international hotel brands are scheduled to open branches in Kenya in the next five years, adding 2400 rooms and expanding the hotel capacity by 13 per cent with a 2.5 per cent compound annual increase in available rooms.
Some of the 13 include Sheraton, Ramada, Hilton, Best Western, Radisson, Marriott, and Mövenpick.
The sale of Sentrim hotels is coming a week after another Indian billionaire family led by Rajesh and Dhruv Pandit placed the iconic Emperor Plaza building in Nairobi on sale for Sh750 million.