Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund to acquire 42 Marriott hotels

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is close to buying 42 hotels managed by Marriott International Inc. and controlled by the Royal Bank of Scotland, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The sovereign wealth fund, also known as ADIA, has been a preferred bidder since last summer and the sale includes hotels in London and Edinburgh, the person said, asking not to be identified because the deal hasn’t been made public.

ADIA may pay 640 million pounds ($993.2 million) for the hotels which RBS acquired after the borrowers defaulted on a loan in 2011, the Times of London reported Feb. 16, without saying how it obtained the information.

Erik Portanger, an ADIA spokesman, and Adam Holden, spokesman for administrators Ernst & Young, declined to comment. Nobody was immediately available to comment at RBS.

With assistance from Neil Callanan in London. Editors: Dale Crofts, Digby Lidstone. To contact the reporter on this story: Mahmoud Kassem in Abu Dhabi at mkassem1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net.