Featured in this EMEA Hospitality Newsletter - Week Ending 22 October 2004
Familiar Suitors Covet Accor Assets
Presence Of Hilton Detected in Evian
What's On The Spanish Menu
Tunis Helps Novotel Breed More Easily
Another Hotel In Feathers' Cap
Doing The Continental In Romania
Maritim: Pine-Fresh In Turkey
Hochtief The Dynamo In Dresden Powering The Maritim Dream


Familiar Suitors Covet Accor Assets
HerAx is said to be competing with London & Regional Properties (L&R) for the honour of securing an £80 million sale and leaseback deal involving four of Accor's hotels in the UK. The prizes on offer are the 168-room Ibis Leeds Centre, the 180-room Novotel Edinburgh Centre, and a pair of hotels in London Docklands: the 278-room Ibis London ExCeL and the 257-room Novotel London ExCeL. Accor has strolled down sale and leaseback lane separately with both L&R and HerAx in the past. L&R carved its name in Accor's heart and now holds a portfolio worth more than £100 million. HerAx first kissed hands with Accor in January this year as it secured a £40 million sale and leaseback on the 106-room Ibis Hull, the 124-room Novotel Milton Keynes and the 182-room Novotel London City South, which stands on the south bank of the Thames in Southwark. Always seeking to match HerAx with respectable properties are its guardians the Heron Corporation and AXA Sun Life, who announced the establishment of the property fund in September 2003.

Presence Of Hilton Detected in Evian Return to Headlines
Hilton International has development work underway on what will be its ninth hotel in France: the €40 million Hilton Evian Resort & Spa. Tumas Group of Malta owns the 173-room, five-star property, which is due to be finished in early 2006. It will be the first French property to join the 47 that are already part of the Hilton Worldwide Resorts network. Spa water will prove refreshing to those builders engaged from next March on a project to extend the 126-room Scandic Hamar in southeastern Norway by 119 rooms. Expectations are that the work will take a year to complete and cost some €9.8 million.

What's On The Spanish Menu Return to Headlines
Recipe for a new 98-room, three-star hotel in the Spanish town of Castellón. Use real estate company Metrovacesa as a base, and add construction firm Coperfil Group and €5.5 million. Set the mixture aside until 2006 to allow Coperfil to work. Once the hotel has risen serve up to Husa Hoteles with a ten-year lease agreement. Hotel companies provide plenty of nourishment in Spain; ask for number 31 from the Best Western International menu and you can enjoy the 30-room, three-star Best Western Hotel Jet, which has opened in the northeastern coastal town of Caldes d'Estrac.

Tunis Helps Novotel Breed More Easily Return to Headlines
Accor is reportedly ready to begin work next April on the construction of a Novotel costing US$24 million in the Tunisian capital Tunis. To the east, in Egypt, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts will be looking forward to putting its feet up by the end of this year when extension and renovation work at the Jolie Ville Mövenpick Luxor Resort should be finished. No rest amid all the excitement in the Lebanese town of Tabarja, which has seen the official opening of the 52-room Aqua Vista Hotel. The property stands adjacent to the Casino du Liban.

Another Hotel In Feathers' Cap Return to Headlines
The Feathers Hotel & Catering Group has added an eighth hotel to its collection in northwest England by paying Jarvis Hotels an undisclosed sum for the Jarvis Leyland Hotel. Between now and next spring the 93-room property in Leyland, Lancashire, will enjoy a multimillion-pound renovation. The sight of The Sharksfin on the hotel market should have buyers wanting to dip their toe in the water. A purchaser can reel in the family-run 11-room hotel in the Cornish fishing village of Mevagissey for £1.1 million. British Land dangled the freehold to the Swiss Centre on Leicester Square in central London in front of investors. The company attracted 30 nibbles of interest with the strongest bite belonging to developer McAleer & Rushe, which paid £47 million for the mixed-use building. British Land noted that the building is ideal for redevelopment; one report suggests that the idea of a hotel being developed there might win the approval of Westminster City Council.

Doing The Continental In Romania Return to Headlines
Romanian chain Continental Hotels has reportedly secured Accor's participation in an idea it has had for the development of a network of hotels in central and western regions of Romania. The cities of Braşov and Timişoara should be the first to witness the process: that of the pairing in one development of an Ibis hotel with a four-star hotel carrying the Continental brand. Reports suggest that Romania will get its first look at NH Hoteles next spring when the Spanish chain opens the 78-room NH Bucharest. The Slovenian capital Ljubljana already has a new hotel to admire: the 114-room, four-star Mons Hotel, which was built at a cost of a reported €17 million.

Maritim: Pine-Fresh In Turkey Return to Headlines
Maritim Hotels of Germany has ventured into Turkey for the first time to open the five-star Maritim Pine Beach Resort, near Belek. Turkish building contractor and architect Mr Metin Kaya owns the 408-room property, which claims for itself the title of largest convention and banquet hotel in Turkey. Ozkardes Group's nose has led it to the western city of Izmir, where the tourism and clothing company has paid a reported US$10.8 million for the former Grand Hotel Mercure. Oyak Turizm put the 185-room property up for sale in December 2003. The new owners, who hope to have the hotel fully renovated by August 2005, are also reported to be interested in opening a four-star or five-star hotel in the same city.

Hochtief The Dynamo In Dresden Powering The Maritim Dream Return to Headlines
Construction firm Hochtief will be called into action shortly to begin work on transforming the Erlweinspeicher warehouse in the German city of Dresden into the Maritim Hotel Dresden. AXA Investment Managers Deutschland, which will own the 328-room, four-star hotel, is putting some €60 million into the project. Construction work is scheduled to finish in spring 2006. Spades are it would seem also trumps across the border in the Netherlands. The real estate firm BAM Vastgoed is set to build a health resort complete with hotel and 18-hole golf course on a 38-hectare site in the western town of Dirkshorn that it purchased in 2002.

Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 14/10/04-21/10/04




Whitbread - Citigroup raised its rating from 'Sell' to 'Hold'.

InterContinental Hotels Group - Morgan Stanley retained its 'Equal-Weight' rating but raised its target price from 600p to 710p.

Hilton Group - The UK government's planned betting reforms led to market speculation that these may mean a clampdown on roulette machines in betting shops.