Richard Branson's Virgin Group makes offer to buy hotel from owners in administration

Virgin Group has made an approach to buy Virgin Hotels Glasgow from the owner, Lloyds Development Limited, as part of an administration process. The property opened on the Broomielaw in August this year. The lender is choosing to pursue a sales process in the hope of getting a better offer and that will have an impact on employees, suppliers and guests.

The company that owns the hotel building is part of a limited liability partnership of four designated members. They are Richard Diamond and Rishipal Singh alongside Lloyds Development Ltd with a registered address in Guernsey and Moreply Ltd, registered in London. All four partners were appointed on 18 May 2017.

Katy Broomhead of Interpath Advisory told GlasgowWorld: "Blair Nimmo and Geoff Jacobs from Interpath Advisory were appointed interim managers of Lloyds Developments Limited on 1 December 2023. The Company is the owner of a property located at 246 Clyde Street in Glasgow. The property is currently occupied and trading as Virgin Hotels Glasgow. The hotel continues to operate and we understand trade as usual.

"The interim managers are fully committed to working with Virgin Hotels and other stakeholders to ensure there is no disruption to operations at the hotel, while they assess options to bring the property to market in due course."

A spokesperson from Virgin Group, said:  “Sadly, Lloyds Development Limited – the owner of Virgin Hotels Glasgow, which Virgin Hotels has a management contract with – has financial problems and is now in receivership.

“The Virgin Group has tried to help find solutions including offering to purchase the hotel at what it believed to be a fair price to keep it open and to ensure the team remains employed. If this proposal wasn’t accepted, Virgin also offered to keep the hotel open, splitting the costs of running the hotel for the next six months, whilst the owners sought a better price.

“Unfortunately, the lender has not accepted Virgin's offer and wishes to pursue a sales process. Virgin Hotels is very disappointed by this decision after the hard work everyone has put into the project and in particular because of the impact it will have on the team that works there.

“Virgin Group remains committed to finding a solution. Its offer to buy the hotel, save jobs, and complete the building or its offer to share the running costs for the next six months – which will ensure the team continues to be employed – will remain on the table for at least 24 hours.  If it purchased the property, Virgin would aim to finish the development of the hotel to create something the City of Glasgow can be proud of.  Virgin Hotels hopes the owner, lender and administrator will do what’s right to keep the hotel open."

Virgin Hotels opened its second European property in Glasgow on 18 August after officially opening in Edinburgh in March of this year. The completed lower floors of the city centre hotel include its flagship restaurant and bar, Commons Club.

Upper floors with a series of suites were not completed for the launch of the hotel. A whisky bar set to boast 'one of the finest whisky collections in Glasgow' was to be introduced as part of the next phase of building work - the space is sealed behind a temporary wall in the foyer.

Virgin Hotels operate the Glasgow property under a standard hospitality management agreement. Only Virgin Hotels Glasgow is impacted by the administration and offer to buy the building, it does not affect other Virgin Hotels as they are owned independently.