A property fund backed by Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, and Simon Cowell, the pop impresario, looks set to acquire 37 hotels in two separate transactions worth about £600 million.

The property investment firm, aAIM, is believed to be in exclusive talks to acquire a package of 19 former Queens Moat Houses (QMH) hotels controlled by Goldman Sachs’s White-hall Funds unit, and 18 hotels owned by Kew Green Hotels.

It is thought to be paying about £400 million for the QMH package and close to £200 million for the Kew Green hotels. According to Hotel Report, a trade journal, HBOS is supplying debt funding for both transactions.

Analysts said that the availability of the debt, albeit from a bank already involved with aAIM and Kew Green, was a sign of confidence returning to the debt markets after the credit crisis.

The QMH properties, being sold through Goldman’s investment banking arm, have about 3,000 rooms. Just three of the hotels retain the old Moat House brand, in Reading, Gatwick and Stoke-on-Trent, with 12 being run under the Holiday Inn brand and three under Crowne Plaza.

Kew Green, which is backed by HBOS and the Moorfield property group, operates 15 hotels under the Holiday Inn and Express by Holiday Inn brands. The others are Days Hotels.

InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands, has its flags over 30 of the 37 hotels under two separate franchise deals. However, it is understood that, following a competitive process against Accor and Hilton Hotels Corporation, it will additionally take on the management of the 30 hotels.

AAIM, founded in January 2003 by property investors Robert Whitton, Mark Tagliaferri and Stuart Le Gas-sick, already has a presence in the hotel sector, having joined forces with Robert Tchenguiz’s R20 last year to acquire the Menzies Hotels chain for £180 million.

None of the parties involved would comment or could be reached.

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