Omni Saigon Hotel Secures New Owner

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM-Two real estate funds listed on the London Stock Exchange have joined forces to acquire controlling interest in the 249-room Omni Saigon Hotel. The luxurious four-star facility is now owned by Vinaland Ltd. and the Vietnam Opportunity Fund, which are joining a cavalry of capital targeting the once-forsaken country.

“It went relatively smooth,” recounts Ramsey Shilling Commercial Real Estate Services principal Frank Buckley, whose California-based organization brokered the deal. The first of what Buckley says he hopes will be an increasing number of global assignments for Ramsey Shilling involved players spanning the world, with participants not only in Vietnam and London, but also China, Japan and Singapore.

Although due diligence of the property was “accelerated,” Buckley tells GlobeSt.com that competent multi-national counsel and cooperation among the parties carried the day. The investors paid out $22 million in cash and assumed a level of underlying debt on the property, which caters to a mix of business and leisure travel.