- Iris already owns the Alice Springs Casino, which it acquired last year
- Expansion includes five new assets also in Alice Springs
- Iris focused on high quality hospitality experiences
Iris Capital has announced an expansion of its Northern Territory portfolio through the acquisition of three pubs and two stand-alone accommodation hotels.
The news follows the recent acquisition of the HTL Property-owned Strathfield Hotel in Sydney to Iris Capital, led by Sam Arnaout.
Already the owner of the Alice Springs Casino, the Gap Tavern, Todd Tavern, Diplomat Hotel, Mercure Hotel and Aurora Hotel will now be owned by Iris Capital. Notably, all of these assets are located in Alice Springs.
“In addition to our Casino and Crown Plaza accommodation operation, the five asset roll up provides additional scale, and a clear platform to leverage human resource strategies and other synergies required to prosecute the high quality hospitality experience we are determined to deliver our clients in Australia’s Northern Territory,” said Mr Arnaout, CEO of Iris Capital.
“We have worked closely with Sam and his team over a number of years to deliver upon these growth strategy objectives, and feel confident the five hotel assets acquired will benefit from both the expertise and strategic capital he plans to deploy,” said HTL Property Director, Brent McCarthy.
The private investment made by Iris Capital reflects ongoing government investment into arts and other community projects in the tourism hotspot.
The Diplomat Hotel, the largest of the three pub transactions, was sold by Darren Baker’s Waratah Fund, which had recently disinvested the Victoria Hotel in Wagga Wagga for $28 million, the NSW regional record sale.
The sale by HTL Property to Iris Capital follows the recent sale of the Beachfront Hotel in Darwin to Endeavour Group – the spinoff of Woolworth’s liquor division, which includes BWS and Dan Murphy.
