Elanor Investors has tapped Denison Partners to explore sale options for its Elanor Hotel Accommodation Fund, which counts Tasmania’s iconic Cradle Mountain Lodge within its stable.
Elanor paused trading on Friday and cancelled its distribution as it considered a range of options to stabilise and maintain its ongoing financial position.
These include continuing to meet its obligations to debt financiers, despite not currently being in breach of its financing arrangements.
Advisory firm MA Moelis Australia is working on refinancing options and acting as debt arranger as it assists with a company review.
Citi is looking at sale options for the company as a whole, while King & Wood Mallesons is Elanor’s legal adviser.
The company said last week it was selling hotel assets within the Elanor Hotel Accommodation Fund and would exit the hotels, tourism and leisure sector.
It is understood assets under management in the fund are worth slightly less than $500m.
Key assets are Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain Lodge and the Mayfair Hotel in Adelaide.
Real estate agents are assessing sale opportunities for individual assets.
A sale of the hotel fund would enable the Elanor group to focus on the significant institutionally led growth opportunities within its core real estate sectors of retail, office healthcare and industrial, the company said in a statement on Friday.
It said it would look to sell other assets and would finalise its accounts by August 30, and its suspension would be lifted by September 6.
For the six months to December, Elanor reported a $23.8m loss, while net debt was $46.5m. It had loans to ENN Group, EHAF Group, Bluewater and Stirling. Its market value has been around $125m.
Established in 2009, Elanor Investors is an ASX-listed real estate funds management group, managing more than $6.2bn of real estate investments across Australia and New Zealand.
It originates and manages real estate assets to deliver returns for both Elanor’s funds management capital partners and Elanor securityholders.
The business is run by former Lehman Brothers Australia head Glenn Willis, who co-founded Moss Capital and Grange Securities, which was bought by Lehman Brothers.
The company has the Elanor Managed Funds and the Australian-listed Elanor Investors Group.
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