An Irish consortium that bought a poor-performing hotel in Leipzig, Germany, almost three years ago for €2 million has watched its investment treble in value.

Brian Bagnall of agent Bagnall Doyle MacMahon, who acquired the 113-bedroom Hotel am Ratsholz for the group of investors after it had been in receivership for three years, said the key to their success was in finding a top-rate management team to put the hotel back into profit.

Because of the change of fortune, the Novum Group, which operates 30 other hotels in Germany, has taken a 25-year lease on Hotel am Ratsholz at an increased rent of €400,000 over three years.

Bagnall says the value of the investment is likely to have tripled in three years and the business will show a return of just under 20 per cent for the investors.