| HVS Executive Search Places Procopis |
| HVS Executive Search congratulates Peter Procopis on his appointment at Dawnay, Day as Finance Director of Dawnay Shore Hotels (DSH). DSH currently owns and operates 17 full service four-star hotels in the UK under the Paramount Hotels brand. |
| IHG Signs New Franchise Agreement With Queens Moat Houses | Return to Headlines |
| InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has signed a new franchise agreement with Queens Moat Houses (QMH) that will see an initial batch of 13 of QMH’s hotels in the UK take an IHG brand. Eleven of these properties, which span the country from Harrogate in the north to Plymouth in the southwest and which between them have a total of 1,740 rooms, will be Holiday Inns. The other two – in Glasgow and Nottingham, and together totalling 493 rooms – will wear the Crowne Plaza brand. All 13 properties, which will be managed by QMH under a 20-year franchise, will enjoy refurbishment work. The agreement makes provision for the Moat House hotels in Reading, Gloucester and Chester to join in the party at a later date; the 160-room property in Chester would become a Crowne Plaza and the other two hotels would add a total of another 220 rooms to the Holiday Inn portfolio. | |
| IHG Takes Flight From Dublin Airport | Return to Headlines |
| InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has disposed of another hotel, bringing the total number it has sold since April 2003 to 126. The latest to leave the company's system is the 248-room Holiday Inn, Dublin Airport, for which Adelphi Way Developments & Investments has paid the approximate net book value of £23.3 million. That sum takes the proceeds pile from the sale of the 126 hotels to some £1.8 billion. | |
| Interval And De Vere Resort Ownership Sign Affiliation Agreement | Return to Headlines |
| Interval International and De Vere Resort Ownership have a relationship “built on mutual respect” that has lasted for seven years. And yet the only sound of scratching has been that of pen nib on paper, as each party put its name to a long-term master affiliation agreement. The agreement covers all existing properties, and in De Vere's case there are three of these: Belton Woods, in Lincolnshire; Slaley Hall, in Northumberland; and Cameron House, on the shores of Loch Lomond in Scotland. And once it is finished The Carrick at Cameron House will also be covered by the agreement, as will all future properties. | |
| Spain Melts Icelanders | Return to Headlines |
| A group of Icelandic investors by the name of AB Capital is reported to have paid around €100 million for a plot of land measuring 2 million m² in the Murcia region of southeastern Spain. And on that land the investors want to build a mixed-use development featuring a hotel. The investors, when catching up on news from home, will read that their compatriot, the private company Thorstorg, has paid an undisclosed sum for the 43-room, four-star Hotel Odinsve, which stands in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik. | |
| Who Financed The Prague Marriott Hotel Deal? | Return to Headlines |
| We learned last week that Chicago-based real estate investment firm Walton Street Capital and investment bank Merrill Lynch had acted together to purchase the 293-room Prague Marriott Hotel and the BH Centrum office and retail complex from Austrian investment fund IDAG. Neighbours waiting to catch a glimpse of the new owners might have turned to their partners and asked, “where did they get the money for those, then, that’s what I’d like to know”. If you too were wondering, then here is the answer: Erste Bank of Austria, which provided the couple with non-recourse first and mezzanine funding of €127.5 million. | |
| Maritim Hotels Opens A Second Hotel In Berlin | Return to Headlines |
| Twenty-six months in the making and perhaps only a few minutes in the opening – welcome the Maritim Hotel Berlin. The four-star hotel, which is Maritim Hotels’ second property in the German capital after the Maritim proArte Hotel, has 505 guest rooms and is the largest congress hotel in the city centre – it can accommodate up to 5,800 delegates. Maritim Hotels is also planning to tempt the conference fraternity to the emirate of Dubai with a 2,000 m² conference facility at the Maritim Dubailand. This four-star hotel, which is due to open in July 2007, will have more than 1,000 guest rooms and will be financed by the German closed fund Dubai 1000 Hotel-Fonds. | |
| Remember: Summit In September | Return to Headlines |
| The Sofitel St James in London is the venue for the 5th Annual European Hotel Finance & Investment Summit, brought to you by Euromoney Seminars. Distinguished speakers at the event, which runs from 28-29 September, include Accor’s Michael Flaxman, Gill Baker (Premier Travel Inn) and Amar Lalvani (Starwood Hotels). HVS International London’s Managing Director Russell Kett will be moderating a panel addressing the question, “Where are the investment opportunities and who is exploiting them?”. Such fare should be enough to satisfy the biggest of appetites, but those with room for more could stay on at the hotel for the separately bookable Limited Service Hotels Briefing Day, on 30 September. You will then be able to feast your ears on the likes of HVS International’s Dominique Bourdais, and Gerard Greene, the CEO of Yotel. Further details are available from the website www.euromoneyseminars.com click here. | |
Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 04/08/05-11/08/05
Accor - The share price rose earlier in the week on rumours, subsequently denied, that Colony Capital was planning a takeover.
InterContinental Hotels Group - Williams de Broe raised its rating from 'Hold' to 'Buy' and set a target price of 865p.
Millennium & Copthorne - Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating from 'Underweight' to 'Equal-Weight' and raised the target price from 350p to 380p. Morgan Stanley believes there is limited downside risk to the current valuation, as the shares are supported by a strong trading momentum and the possibility of asset restructuring.
