| Cendant Corporation: A Four-Way Split Next Summer |
| The Cendant Corporation is destined to split next summer into its four component parts: real estate, travel distribution, hospitality and vehicle rental. The company took the decision in the belief that such a move would unlock its true market value. Cendant’s shareholders will own 100% of the equity in each component. Hospitality, which is the world leader in timeshare development and the franchisor of hotel brands such as Ramada, Days Inn and Howard Johnson, will be headed by Stephen Holmes, the current chairman and chief executive of Cendant’s Travel Content Division. None of the four companies has a name yet, but what is certain is that the name Cendant is set for retirement. |
| Fadesa Goes Up A Mountain And Comes Down The Danube | Return to Headlines |
| Spanish developer Fadesa is off to the Pyrenees to build a resort comprising among other facilities a golf course, a ski run, hotels and serviced apartments. The 3,400-hectare development at the Vallfosca resort will cost some €230 million and is expected to open in time for the 2007/08 winter season. When it is not climbing mountains Fadesa will be fording the Danube in the Hungarian capital Budapest and making its way to Csepel Island. At the behest of the local council, the company will cover more than 80 hectares with a mixed-use development featuring an unspecified number of hotels. | |
| Union Properties Takes Pole Position In Dubai | Return to Headlines |
| “And, it’s go!” When the lights turn green next year, an assortment of construction machinery will lurch forward from the grid ready to begin work on the theme park Formula One World, which is to include a hotel and conference facilities. The vehicles will be marshalled by developer Union Properties, which signed an agreement flourished by Formula One Administration, the company that owns the commercial rights to the FIA Formula One World Championship. When Union Properties takes the chequered flag in 2008 the champagne will be spilled at MotorCity in the emirate of Dubai, which will be celebrating the arrival of the US$360 million development. | |
| Emirates Marina Serviced Apartments – Expected Time Of Arrival: 2008 | Return to Headlines |
| The airline Emirates has set a course for the hospitality sector once again. On the company’s radar screen on this occasion is the Dubai Marina development in the emirate of Dubai. On board, Emirates has the plans to the eight penthouse suites and 251 apartments that will go into the creation of the Emirates Marina Serviced Apartments & Spa. The property should be fully assembled by September 2006 and it will cost a projected US$81.7 million. | |
| Premier Travel Inn Leads The Way In The Interims | Return to Headlines |
| The Whitbread interim results party was a mixed affair. Premier Travel Inn ran around the room showing off its like-for-like sales increase of 7.7% and its 5.1% growth in RevPAR. Guests came up to shake Whitbread’s hand to congratulate it on group pre-tax profit of £102.9 million, an increase of 11.0% on the previous year’s comparable, but the company could raise only half a smile in return as it fretted about a “difficult consumer and cost environment”. David Lloyd Leisure introduced some of its new European members but otherwise its attempts to cheer fell as flat as its like-for-like sales growth. The mood improved when Costa coffee served up its figures, though no-one seemed to have much appetite for either pub food or pizza. Like-for-like sales at the pub restaurants and those on the high street were both negative, at 1.2% and 1.8%, respectively. | |
| The InterContinental Brand Comes Back To Belgrade | Return to Headlines |
| The InterContinental flag used to fly in Belgrade, until the outbreak of civil war in the former Yugoslavia sent it slithering down the pole and into hiding. But the flag will be hoisted again on 1 November thanks to a management agreement signed by InterContinental Hotels Group and International CG d.p. Beograd (ICG). ICG is to spend €22 million on renovating the same 393-room hotel that the pair first opened together in 1979. | |
| Latvenergo Hoping To Spark Interest In Its Hotel In Latvia | Return to Headlines |
| Latvenergo generates electricity for the people of Latvia. On 15 December it will be hoping to generate interest in the auction of its Liesma hotel complex, which stands in the resort of Jūrmala. The company has set the opening bid for the 123-room hotel at US$6.4 million. The jingle of coin has already echoed around the resort of Ohrid in Macedonia. Native holding company Feršped, which already holds shares in two other hotels in the resort, is reported to have paid local hotel operator Inex Gorica US$3.6 million for the 90-room Park Hotel. | |
| No September Rain On Accor's Nine-Month Figures | Return to Headlines |
| Accor’s nine-month figures caused no cloudiness in the company’s crystal ball; if you stare into it, you can make out the figures €590 million to €610 million: Accor’s earlier, and unchanged, prediction of full-year pre-tax profit. Like-for-like sales over the nine months to 30 September 2005 were up 4.9%, to €5.6 billion; the company’s economy hotels outside the USA contributed €1 billion of this total, a like-for-like rise of 4.2%. The economy hotels in Europe recorded a 3.5% rise (like for like) in their RevPAR, which finished on €36.1. Accor’s upscale and midscale hotels in Europe returned RevPAR of €59.1, a rise of 2.2% (like for like). | |
| Golden Tulip Plants Itself In Wageningen | Return to Headlines |
| De Wageningse Berg is a 53-room, three-star hotel that stands in the Dutch town of Wageningen. By 1 January 2007 it will be a 91-room hotel sporting an extra pip on its epaulette. And the driving force behind this marvellous transformation? Why, Golden Tulip Hotels, which will start by rebranding the property as the Golden Tulip Wageningen on 1 December 2005. It is allowed to do this thanks to a lease agreement it has signed with the hotel’s owner the Westermeijer Group. The transformation of the hotel will begin on 1 March 2006; the renovation work is set to last for ten months. | |
| NH Hoteles Sees Hotel EBITDA Rise Over Nine Months | Return to Headlines |
| NH Hoteles’ EBITDA for the first nine months of the year may have shown a 19.3% decline, to €104.7 million, but EBITDA from its hotel division was travelling in the opposite direction: an increase of 27.4%, to €93.6 million. RevPAR among the company’s hotels in Europe was 3.7% up on the previous year’s comparable. NH Hoteles’ revenues were 1.7% lower, at €687.5 million. | |
| Starwood's Figures Provide A Feast For Steven | Return to Headlines |
| Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ chief executive Steven Heyer hailed as “outstanding” the company's third-quarter figures, which contained the likes of a 19.2% rise, to US$347 million, in adjusted EBITDA and an 11.9% increase in RevPAR across Starwood’s hotels outside North America. The company also announced plans to dispose of up to US$4 billion worth of assets over the coming 12 months. Starwood would seek to retain management or franchise contracts on many of the assets to be sold. | |
Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 20/10/05-27/10/05
NH Hoteles - The share price climbed ahead of the company's nine-month figures on press rumours of stake building.
De Vere Group - Takeover rumours caused the share price to rise. Teather & Greenwood has a 'Hold' rating on the stock.
Whitbread - The markets tended to focus on the company's outlook that predicted that the consumer environment would "remain challenging". Whitbread's pre-tax profit came in below UBS's expectations; UBS retained its 'Neutral 2' rating.
