Eversheds, DLA Piper and Clifford Chance (CC) have advised on the £290m acquisition of the Principal Hotel Group, a major chain of luxury hotels throughout the UK.

Eversheds advised Bank of Scotland Corporate, which provided senior debt to the buyer, the specialist property investment company aAIM, to finance the acquisition.

Real estate finance partner Gerry Mulholland, who is based in Leeds, and Newcastle-based partner Nick On led the Eversheds team for Bank of Scotland.

The deal is the bank's second recent deal in the hotels sector. Eversheds' On said: "We have worked with the Bank of Scotland for many years. This is the second hotel finance deal we have done with the bank in the last three months."

DLA Piper London head of real estate Richard Crossfield advised aAIM.

CC advised the seller, buy-out house Permira, with private equity partner Simon Cooke and corporate finance partner Jonny Myers jointly leading the team.

Principal Hotel owns a chain of luxury four-star hotels throughout the UK.

Simon Waller, head of the finance group at Eversheds, said: "The deal flow we have seen over the last few months reached a crescendo in December.

"The practice has moved up a gear recently and it is great to see the national team working so closely together on major funding projects".