| HVS Hodges Ward Elliott Closes The Sale Of Two Hotels In Paris |
| JJW Hotels & Resorts has paid Pacific Investments a total of €53.5 million for two four-star boutique properties in Paris: the 70-room Hotel Balzac and the 37-room Hotel de Vigny. Pacific Investments was advised in the sale by HVS Hodges Ward Elliott, the joint venture newly formed between HVS International and US real estate broker and investment banker Hodges Ward Elliott. As JJW motors along the Champs Elysées it might like to wave hello to Hilton International, which has seen the 508-room Hilton Arc de Triomphe Paris safely through its first month of operation. |
| Ramada On A High In Amsterdam | Return to Headlines |
| Ramada International has doubled the size of its portfolio in the Dutch city of Amsterdam inside a week by opening the 89-room Ramada Hotel Amsterdam Leidse Square, the 52-room Ramada Hotel Amsterdam Beethoven and the 34-room Ramada Hotel Amsterdam Museum Square. Freshness pervades the air too further south, thanks to Golden Tulip Hotels. It made sure that the paint in the 20 new guest rooms was thoroughly dry before it announced last week that a two-and-a-half year, €6.8 million renovation of the Tulip Inn Amersfoort had ended in April. That same month also saw the conclusion of renovation work, over the border in Germany, at the Golden Tulip Park Consul Hotel in Berlin. The work here took less time and consumed less money: five months and €500,000. Meanwhile, a report from neighbouring Belgium states that 128 rooms of a Radisson SAS hotel are to occupy 12 floors of the taller of two towers at Group GL International's redevelopment of the TT-center in the eastern town of Hasselt. The hotel is due to open in August 2005. | |
| Manchester City Inn | Return to Headlines |
| City Inn would appear from reports to have settled on Manchester as the location for what would be its fifth hotel in the UK. As on all four previous occasions the company will have the Bank of Scotland by its side, this time carrying the reported £30 million it will take to raise a 284-room hotel from next January at the Piccadilly Place development. The property is due to open in August 2006 and City Inn will fill in the time studying Leeds and thinking about making a second visit to London. And while they wait for the new City Inn, Mancunians can admire the newly opened five-star Radisson Edwardian Manchester Hotel; the £50 million 263-room property occupies the site of the city's Free Trade Hall but retains the facade of the Grade II listed building. A slightly earlier arrival in the city was DIFA Immo-Invest, which last month paid a reported £50 million to an unnamed private offshore property company for the 360-room Radisson SAS Hotel Manchester Airport. | |
| Follow The Sheikh Zayed Road To The Conrad | Return to Headlines |
| The real estate company Private Property Management (PPM) has accompanied Conrad Hotels on a stroll from PPM's headquarters in the emirate of Abu Dhabi to the emirate of Dubai. On arrival the pair will head down the Sheikh Zayed Road and stop to gaze fondly on the site where the luxury 350-room Conrad Dubai will be opening in late 2007. Across in North Africa, meanwhile, Maritim Hotels of Germany has announced that it has enjoyed just over a month now at the helm of the Maritim Hotel Yadis Djerba in Tunisia. The 340-room property recently underwent renovation work that raised it from four-star to five-star status. | |
| In Oporto It's All About Meliá | Return to Headlines |
| Sol Meliá has given its Meliá brand its debut in Portugal with the opening in the northwestern city of Oporto of the 294-room, four-star Meliá Gaia Porto Hotel. The company's compatriot NH Hoteles has reported in from Switzerland to say that renovation work costing €3.5 million has been completed at the 189-room NH Geneva Airport. When the pair return to their native Spain they will notice a few changes: that Madrid has the first Travelodge hotel outside the UK and Juban Inmobiliara's first hotel in the city: the 182-room, five-star Mirasierra Suites Hotel; that Fuerte Hoteles now has a fifth property in the southern region of Andalusia – the 219-room, four-star Hotel Fuerte Costa Luz, in Conil de la Frontera; and that Vincci Hoteles has its feet under the manager's desk at the 58-room, five-star Vincci Selección Canela Golf, near Huelva. | |
| What A Strong Grip You Have, Elizabeth | Return to Headlines |
| Elizabeth Hotels has tightened its hold on eastern England with the acquisition of two properties from subsidiary companies of Corus Hotels. Elizabeth Hotels headed to Suffolk to pay County Hotels a reported £4.65 million for The County Hotel, Ipswich – the 76-room property is now known as the Hotel Elizabeth Copdock – before crossing the county boundary into Norfolk to hand over a reported £3 million to Delaquest for The Duke's Head Hotel in King's Lynn, a 71-room property now called the Hotel Elizabeth King's Lynn. Refurbishment work on both properties is due to start soon. | |
| NCC Sells A Hotel In Gothenburg | Return to Headlines |
| NCC Property Development has sold a 305-room hotel that occupies part of the Centralhuset building in the Swedish city of Gothenburg to Norwegian real estate company Host Hoteleiendom for approximately €27 million. First Hotels will operate the property as First Hotel G from 1 August. Over the border in Finland, native operator Sokotel has signed long-term extensions to its leases on two hotels in the capital: the Sokos Hotel Helsinki and the Sokos Hotel Torni, which is to undergo refurbishment work between now and next spring. | |
| Come To Greif In The Dolomites | Return to Headlines |
| Italian operator Tivigest Vacanze has had to scale the Dolomites in northeastern Italy to reach its latest property: the Greif Hotel in the ski resort of Corvara. In its backpack the company had the €10 million that was reportedly necessary for it to acquire the 60-room property. Elsewhere in Italy, the western town of Viareggio is preparing for the reopening on 18 June of the Grand Hotel Principe di Piemonte. The 106-room hotel has been undergoing renovation work for the past two years, work which has cost a reported €23 million. | |
| Bewley's Perks Up On Receiving Clearance To Build | Return to Headlines |
| The Irish press reports that Bewley's Hotels has been given permission to develop a 450-room hotel for €67 million on a site close to Dublin Airport. Elsewhere in Dublin, work has started on a €30 million project that will see the 90-room Lynch Green Isle Hotel add 122 new rooms to its inventory by September 2005. Over in western Ireland, meanwhile, the O'Donoghue family is set to open The Brehon Hotel in Killarney this month. The 127-room, four-star property, which cost a reported €25 million to build, stands opposite Killarney National Park. | |
| The Ascott Group Calls For The Remaining 50% Of Citadines | Return to Headlines |
| In February last year The Ascott Group took a 50% stake in Citadines, the company that operates more than 5,100 serviced apartments in cities across Europe. Sixteen months on and the Singapore-based company has exercised its call option on the remaining 50%, for which it will pay €74.3 million; Ascott expects to have completed the deal by the end of 2004. According to Ascott's CEO Eugene Lai, the company will at some point restructure its stakeholding by selling off shares to strategic and financial partners. Ascott will use the money raised to fund further growth in Europe. | |
| Hungary Will Not Starve For Want Of Spa Hotels | Return to Headlines |
| The authorities in the northern Hungarian town of Bábolna are to spend a reported US$49 million on the construction of a tourism project that will feature a spa hotel of 200 to 250 rooms. A similar idea formed some time ago in the mind of Szalók Holding but the company has not until now been able to start work on a US$58.4 million spa complex in Egerszalók that will feature a 250-bed, four-star hotel. Elsewhere in eastern Europe, the Orco Property Group is poised to open the 61-room Le Regina boutique hotel in the Polish capital Warsaw. | |
| Recipe For New UK Hotels: First, Take Two Seasoned Restaurateurs | Return to Headlines |
| Restaurateur Pat McDonald is reported to be looking for a property developer interested in helping him establish a 20-room designer hotel in Birmingham. Another restaurateur perhaps hoping that the local council will not think his idea pie in the sky is Guy Lawrenson, owner of the What's Cooking restaurant chain, who apparently has plans to turn the Proudman laboratory – part of the Bidston Observatory on the Wirral in northwest England – into a luxury 44-bed hotel complex. | |
| Accor Looks To Become The Main Shareholder In Club Med | Return to Headlines |
| Accor has announced that it is to take a 28.9% stake in Club Méditerranée (Club Med) and by so doing it will become the main shareholder. The stake is composed of the 21.2% held by the Agnelli Group and the 7.7% holding of Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC), and will cost Accor a total of €252 million. Accor will fund the acquisition by issuing convertible bonds, an issue that CDC will underwrite so that the transaction may proceed. If the deal is approved by the regulatory authorities, then Accor will use its position as the dominant shareholder to work with Club Med's management to improve the company's profitability. | |
Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Two Weeks 27/05/04-10/06/04
Whitbread - The share price soared as UBS reiterated its 'Buy' recommendation.
InterContinental Hotels Group - Teather & Greenwood put a 'Hold' rating on the stock.
Hilton Group - Broker Seymour Pierce raised its profit forecasts and maintained its 'Buy' rating.
