Manish Chande, the former chief executive of Land Securities Trillium, will be named this week as a non-executive director of Vector Hospitality, the £2.75 billion hotel real estate investment trust (Reit), The Times has learnt.

Mr Chande, who is also a former chairman of NCP, made his name by winning contracts with the BBC and BT. He left Trillium in 2002 to set up Mountgrange Capital, the property investment firm behind the £300 million Caltongate development in Edinburgh.

At Vector, which could announce its intention to float as early as today, he will join a board that includes J. J. McNeil, former head of European investment banking at Citigroup and ex-head of UK mergers and acquisitions at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney.

Vector’s chairman is Simon Duffy, the former boss of NTL, and the principal director is Richard Balfour-Lynn, the Marylebone Warwick Balfour (MWB) boss. The other directors are Sir David Michels, until recently chief executive of Hilton Group, and former the ITV and Granada finance director Henry Staunton.

Vector, Britain’s first hotel Reit, is expected to be the biggest flotation on the London Stock Exchange this year. It is raising £2 billion in equity in order to acquire hotels worth about £2.75 billion. Most of the hotels operate under such brands as De Vere, Village, Marriott and Hilton (including the Waldorf Hilton and Cumberland hotels in London). Also included will be the highly regarded boutique chains Malmaison and Hotel du Vin, both owned by MWB.

The flotation is being handled by Deutsche Bank, in its role as sole global co-ordinator and sponsor. It will also be joint bookrunner with Goldman Sachs and UBS, while Citigroup and JPMorgan are co-lead managers. SJ Berwin are providing legal advice.

A spokesman for Vector declined to comment.

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