| Featured in this EMEA Hospitality Newsletter - Week Ending 12 December 2003 |
| Starwood Finds A Corker In Spain | Return to Headlines |
| The Luxury Collection will be embracing a seventh Spanish hotel by the end of 2005 when Starwood Hotels & Resorts unveils the Hotel Marqués de Riscal. The man behind the design of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Frank O. Gehry, has applied his architectural flair to this property, which will rise within the Marqués de Riscal wine complex in Elciego in northeastern Spain. Starwood touched glasses on the management agreement with Vinos de los Herederos del Marqués de Riscal, which sees the hotel as one element in the near €60 million rejuvenation of the estate. | |
| Well, Jarvis Did Warn You | Return to Headlines |
| Those who heeded John Jarvis's July warning that trading was tough for Jarvis Hotels will find little to surprise them in the company's results for the 28 weeks to 11 October. Turnover slipped 1.9% to £87.6 million and pre-tax profit before exceptionals fell 56.4% to £5.1 million. The necessity in such circumstances of relying on leisure rather than corporate business meant that while occupancy rose 0.5 percentage points to 70.5%, the attendant fall in average room rate left RevPAR 3.3% down on the previous year's comparable, at £35.38. Chairman Jarvis said that the prospects for the rest of the company's financial year remained uncertain. What is certain now is John Jarvis's previously heralded plan to buy up the company's entire issued share capital. The offer price of 145p a share has been formally recommended, a price which values Jarvis Hotels at some £160 million. If and when the management buyout is completed, Jarvis's hotel collection could well be three properties lighter; the company has three hotels (the names of which were not disclosed) on the market following a review of its portfolio. | |
| Hilton Has A Nose For Qatar | Return to Headlines |
| December 2005 should see Hilton International arrive in Qatar for the first time, after the company this week signed a 15-year contract with the New Doha Hotel Company to manage the Hilton Doha. The 320-room hotel will form part of a US$60 million development in the Al Dafnah district of the Qatari capital. The Middle East it seems will soon be overrun by builders. The Omani government has agreed to Abu Hatim Trade and Contracting Company's building two hotels in the country for a total cost of US$6.5 million. A 42-room property will rise in Diba and one of 24 rooms in Masirah; both hotels are due to open in March 2005. Ensuring that the cement-mixers keep on turning across in North Africa, in Algeria, is the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company, which is to build three hotels in and around the capital Algiers for a reported total cost of US$321 million. | |
| There's A Tulip Inn My Garderen | Return to Headlines |
| Spring will see two Tulip Inn properties flower in the Netherlands. On 1 April 2004 the Richard's Hotels owned by Richard Roeland and Richard van de Velde in Hilversum and Garderen will rebrand to become the 58-room Tulip Inn Hilversum and the 64-room Tulip Inn Garderen. These latest additions take Golden Tulip Hotels' Dutch portfolio to 67 hotels and 5,481 rooms, a room count unrivalled in the Netherlands. | |
| Reval Revitalised | Return to Headlines |
| According to reports in the Baltic press, Linstow International, the owner of the Reval Hotel Group, has decided that as from next month the seven hotels in the portfolio would be best served under the management of a new company: Reval Hotel Management (RHM). Reval Hotel Group will concentrate more on real estate. RHM is keen to expand the hotel chain into the Ukrainian capital Kiev and the Russian city of St Petersburg, where down in the Tercentenary Park something is stirring; namely, Baltic Alliance, which is to build a 150-room, four-star hotel and a motel by 2007 at a reported cost of US$28 million. | |
| Irish Turf Club Cooking Thanks To Aga Khan | Return to Headlines |
| The Irish Turf Club has purchased the Stand House Hotel for close to a reported €15 million thanks to the generosity of the Aga Khan. As its name suggests, the privately owned 63-room hotel at the Curragh racecourse near Kildare, Ireland, is close to the grandstand and will be redeveloped so that all or part of the property may be incorporated into a new grandstand by 2007. | |
| Out With The Old, In With The New Five-Star Hotel | Return to Headlines |
| Developer Plas Newydd Manor Hotel has been granted permission to convert a former old people's home in Burry Port, Carmarthenshire, south Wales, into a £2 million 21-room, five-star hotel. The county is certainly the place to be seen; reports suggest that a number of leading hotel chains are keen to develop a hotel and leisure complex on the outskirts of the town of Carmarthen. Further west, the Five Water Hotel Group has added to its Welsh portfolio with the acquisition from Gatesden, for close to the £1.25 million asking price, of the 24-room, three-star Cleddau Bridge Hotel in Pembroke Dock. The new owners plan to increase the room count to 50 and improve the conference facilities. Back in London Hilton International has announced the completion of a £3.7 million refurbishment programme at the 162-room Hilton London Green Park. | |
| NH Hoteles Says No Occidental Merger | Return to Headlines |
| NH Hoteles has denied a report in the Spanish press that suggested that the company was planning to merge with its compatriot Occidental Hotels & Resorts. A spokeswoman for NH Hoteles was quoted elsewhere as saying that although the two companies had talked on several occasions in the past she was certain that nothing would happen now. Occidental for its part said that there were no formal talks ongoing between it and NH Hoteles. | |
| Norwegian Would-Be King Of The Castle | Return to Headlines |
| Univerzita Karlova of Prague was doubtless as gutted as the 96-bed hotel in the sixteenth-century Zahradky Castle when fire swept through its property last January. But the owners need despair no longer, for across the ashes strides a potential saviour – Norwegian entrepreneur Erik Berg. Mr Berg has reportedly been in talks with the owners with a view to acquiring or leasing the castle, which stands in the Czech town of Česká Lípa, and restoring it sometime within the next three years for the benefit of future tourists. | |
Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 04/12/03-11/12/03
NH Hoteles - Morgan Stanley retains an 'Equal-Weight' rating on the stock.
InterContinental Hotels Group - Smith Barney upgraded its rating from 'Sell' to 'Hold'.
Jarvis Hotels - The share price responded accordingly to the company's interim results.
