Virus Means Lean Outlook for Stradey Park Hotel Investors
News: Fortunate timing for vendors
The sale of Llanelli’s Stradey Park Hotel by Gryphon Leisure, reportedly for £3.2 million to investment consultants Sterling Woodrow Ltd, is at the worst possible time for investors, to whom Sterling Woodrow has been promoting the purchase of individual rooms in the landmark building.
The promised returns of 10% a year, and buy-back at 115% of the purchase price after five years, will be difficult to achieve, given the Westminster government’s decision this month to require all hotels to close, to help restrict the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
The Stradey Park Hotel was sold soon before the order for hotels to close because of Covid-19.
Investors have paid from £59,950 per room for the 77 rooms in the hotel, in what could be labelled a variant of a crowd funding exercise.
Sterling Woodrow, based in Billericay, Essex, is a small company with 15 employees in the year to April 2019, tangible assets of £23,790, cash of £68,173 and shareholders’ funds of a negative £52,796. The company was founded in 2005, and is controlled by director Robert Horwood (56), who is also a director of new company Stradey Partners Ltd, formed in September 2019. Mr Horwood and fellow director Gareth Street jointly own Stradey Partners Ltd.
For Angela Saunders, Barry Saunders and Alison Anderson, the directors of Gryphon Leisure Ltd, the timing of the sale was fortunate in the light of the unforeseeable hammer-blow to the UK hospitality industry delivered by Covid-19.
PDR
West Wales News Review 