| Marbella Club Hotel Buys The Schlössle Hotel Group |
| Spanish company Marbella Club Hotel (MCH), the owner of the eponymous property near the Spanish resort of Marbella, is the owner too of the Schlössle Hotel Group (SHG). MCH acquired the chain from two Norwegian private equity funds for an undisclosed sum. SHG has two hotels – the St Petersbourg Hotel and the Schlössle Hotel – in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and one hotel – the Grand Palace Hotel – in Riga, the capital of neighbouring Latvia. |
| Hilton Arrives In Ukraine | Return to Headlines |
| The first Hilton hotel in Ukraine goes to the capital Kiev. Pen nibs belonging to Hilton International, International Business Centre and its subsidiary Hotel Business Development Company skated across an agreement to develop the Hilton Kiev and have it finished by mid 2009. The 257-room, five-star hotel, which Hilton International will operate for 20 years, will cost US$70 million. | |
| Belgrade's Metropol Goes Greek | Return to Headlines |
| Reports from the region indicate that a buyer has been found for the Hotel Metropol in the Serbian capital Belgrade. A subsidiary of the Daskalantonakis Group of Greece, owner of the Grecotel chain, saw off three other bidders with its offer of a reported €27.4 million. The new owners, who take over the reins from Serbian firm Dunav osiguranje, are said to have plans for the wholesale refurbishment of the 224-room property that is designed to raise it from four-star to five-star status. | |
| Crowne Plaza: Planting Its Standard In Liège | Return to Headlines |
| Those who are fond of the Hôtel de Sélys-Longchamps and the Hôtel des Comtes de Méan ought to say their goodbyes now. For the Belgian company Royal Sélys is to convert the pair, which stand in the city of Liège in eastern Belgium, into one new hotel: a 120-room Crowne Plaza. Royal Sélys will run the property, which opens in 2008, under franchise from InterContinental Hotels Group. | |
| Radisson SAS Tracks East Across Poland And Russia | Return to Headlines |
| Brandspotters who track the movements of Radisson SAS will scarce have had time to peel the foil from their chocolate eggs before their radar screens burst into life. Easter saw the brand heading east across Europe and hovering above the city of Poznań in western Poland. Not that the Poles will be alarmed; Radisson SAS is not alien to them: the brand has visited the country five times already. Hotel number six and its 250 rooms will touch down in late 2007. Journalists at The Moscow Times were alerted as the brand moved further east. They noted that the Radisson SAS Slavyanskaya will not be alone in Moscow from September 2007 onwards. That 410-room hotel will be joined that month by the 150-room Radisson SAS Riverside Hotel and a month later by the 264-room Radisson SAS Hotel Belorusskaya. | |
| Center Parcs (UK)'s Shareholders Accept Takeover Offer | Return to Headlines |
| Shareholders in Center Parcs (UK) Group have voted in favour of an offer of 80p a share tabled on 9 March 2006 by Forest Bidco, a company formed under the direction of private equity firm The Blackstone Group. Center Parcs expects to delist its shares on 15 May 2006. The company operates four holiday villages in the UK. | |
| Fylan Collection Grows In Ireland | Return to Headlines |
| The Fylan Collection has three hotels in the Republic of Ireland: one newly opened, one soon to be open and one yet to be built. The 145-room Dunboyne Castle Hotel & Spa, in Dunboyne, Co. Meath, will be joined this September by the 44-room, five-star Dylan Hotel in Dublin. The Menolly Group, which owns the hotels in the Fylan Collection, is to build the third in the Castleknock district of Dublin. This property, the 19-room Mount Hybla Hotel, is due to open in spring 2007. | |
| Hilton Hotels Corporation Looks At International Disposals | Return to Headlines |
| Hotel companies too look forward to deciding how to occupy their time when domestic chores have been completed. Take Hilton Hotels Corporation (HHC), for example. Having nearly finished selling all of the assets that it wants to dispose of in its home country, the company is turning its thoughts abroad. HHC has no plans for a holiday, though; it wants to spend time selling hotels from the Hilton International portfolio. | |
| Millhouse Powers Hotel Generation | Return to Headlines |
| The UK is seeking a source of renewable energy. The Millhouse Partnership has found in the UK an energy source to renew. The company has applied for permission to turn a former electricity-generating building that it leases in the city of Exeter, in Devon, into a luxury hotel and arts centre. Meanwhile, Gleeson Building is putting its energy into a joint venture called GB Hotels. Reports indicate that a property in Luton, in Bedfordshire, will be the first of 15 mid-market hotels that the joint venture will be building on business parks around the UK. Each hotel will have around 150 rooms. | |
| Millennium & Copthorne Reports On Its First Quarter | Return to Headlines |
| Millennium & Copthorne has reported its results for its first-quarter ending 31 March 2006. The best-performing of the company’s 91 hotels worldwide were those in New York (where RevPAR was up 19.3% on the previous year’s comparable) and Singapore (RevPAR growth of 43.9%). RevPAR marketwide was up 13.7% on the previous year’s comparable. Hotel operating profit rose by 14.5% to finish on £18.1 million. | |
Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 13/04/06-20/04/06
Accor - The share price rose on news that Accor was among those bidding to build hotels at railway stations in India.
Whitbread - Numis put a 'Buy' rating on the stock and specified a target price of 1,391p.
Millennium & Copthorne - Citigroup kept its 'Hold' rating as the company's first-quarter results came in in line with expectations.
