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Westmont Hospitality Group
Westmont Hospitality, co-founded by Majid Mangalji and Barry Smith, has deployed over $10B into 600-plus hotel assets since 1975.
Westmont Hospitality Group
Westmont Hospitality Group was founded in 1975 by Majid Mangalji and Barry Smith, beginning with the acquisition of a roadside motel near London, Ontario. The firm pools long-term capital from the founders' families alongside select institutional partners to pursue control-oriented hospitality investments. Westmont operates across the United States, Canada, and Europe, with regional hubs in Toronto, Houston, and London. Westmont invests across the capital structure and through multiple fund vehicles, targeting full-service, select-service, and extended-stay hotels. The firm acquires underperforming or undermanaged assets for repositioning, often holding properties well beyond typical fund lifecycles. Confirmed operating relationships include major global brand flags such as Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Accor. Westmont co-invested alongside Starwood Capital Group in the 2015 privatization of TMI Hospitality and previously owned Morgans Hotel Group in partnership with Yucaipa Companies. The firm maintains a lean central team while leveraging on-the-ground asset managers across its operating markets. Westmont's European platform, managed from London, oversees a dense concentration of assets across the UK, France, and Germany. In November 2022, Westmont and partner Cerberus Capital Management completed the acquisition of Deutsche Hospitality's Hotel Portfolio from an affiliate of Blackstone, adding IntercityHotel and Steigenberger-branded assets across Germany and the Netherlands (per various financial press reports, 2022). Westmont's structural differentiator is its extreme hold-period flexibility and its dual identity as both an active real estate operator and a long-term institutional investor. The firm does not manage third-party capital in a traditional closed-end fund format; instead, it aligns family capital alongside a tight circle of institutional co-investors, which enables it to transact quickly on complex, cross-border hospitality portfolios where other buyers face fund-life constraints.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
1975
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
United Kingdom
City
London
Corporate office
London, United Kingdom
Additional offices
Toronto, Canada · Houston, Texas, United States
Principals
Barry W. Smith
Chairman and Co-Founder
Majid Mangalji
Co-Founder
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who controls investment decisions at Westmont Hospitality Group?
Co-founders Barry Smith and Majid Mangalji remain the firm's controlling principals and set investment strategy. They operate alongside a small senior investment committee drawn from family offices and long-standing operational leadership in Houston and London.
How is Westmont Hospitality structured relative to a traditional private equity fund?
Westmont does not deploy capital through the standard blind-pool, closed-end fund structure. It pools long-duration, patient capital from the founding families and invites institutional co-investors on a deal-by-deal or programmatic basis, which removes forced exit timelines common in traditional fund models.
What hotel brands does Westmont typically operate under?
Westmont partners with all major global flags including Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Accor. Its portfolio spans full-service convention hotels, select-service roadside properties, and extended-stay suites, with a bias toward acquiring underperforming assets in need of capital expenditure and rebranding.
Where does Westmont Hospitality's underlying capital come from?
The core capital base originates from the Mangalji and Smith families. The firm selectively syndicates larger acquisitions to institutional limited partners that it has worked with for decades, avoiding the continuous fundraising cycle that defines many competing private equity sponsors.
Does Westmont Hospitality participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
Westmont acts almost exclusively as a direct, control-oriented acquirer of hotel real estate and hotel operating companies. It generally does not commit as a limited partner to third-party-managed real estate funds.
Which European markets does Westmont actively invest in?
Westmont's London-based European platform concentrates on the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, with additional exposure in the Benelux region. The firm has expanded its continental European footprint notably through the privatization of portfolios of Deutsche Hospitality assets.
How is Westmont Hospitality related to Cerberus Capital Management?
Westmont and Cerberus have partnered as co-investors on large-scale hospitality portfolio acquisitions, most recently closing a major joint purchase of European hotel assets from Blackstone in November 2022. The relationship is co-investment based rather than structural.
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