| Moorfield Eyes Then Buys 24 Macdonald Hotels |
| Macdonald Hotels & Resorts has sold 24 hotels from its UK portfolio, thus realising a plan that the company has had in mind ever since it returned to private ownership in 2003. Macdonald Hotels will continue to manage the properties in the short term; the hotels’ long-term future management will lie in the hands of either Macdonald Hotels or one of two unnamed international hotel companies that will be vying with the Scottish hotelier for the rights. The 24 hotels, which have a total of 2,511 rooms, were purchased by Moorfield Real Estate Fund (MREF) for more than £400 million. MREF last year struck a £110 million sale and leaseback deal on 39 UK hotels owned by WA Shearings, and MREF will be glad of the use of one of Shearings coaches as it prepares to visit its latest purchases. Join the MREF tour as it wends its way from Ardoe House Hotel in Aberdeen, northeast Scotland, to the Southgate Hotel in Exeter, southwest England, stopping en route in locations including Sheffield (St Paul's Hotel), Oxford (Eastgate Townhouse) and Bristol (Holland House). |
| Accor And Pierre & Vacances Together Make Aparthotels | Return to Headlines |
| Accor has formed a 50:50 joint venture with Pierre & Vacances, the holiday residence company, through which the pair will develop aparthotels in Europe. The partnership will build on a nucleus of 22 properties (3,100 apartments). Of these, 14 are already in existence, Pierre & Vacances is developing six and Accor two. The ultimate aim is to have a collection of 50 aparthotels (6,500 apartments) within five years. | |
| B&B King Of The Villages | Return to Headlines |
| B&B Hotels has a portfolio of more than 120 budget hotels: 12 in Germany and the remainder in its homeland France. In October the company, which is owned by the investment firm Eurazeo, opened exclusive talks with SFIH with a view to taking a 100% holding in the company that owns Villages Hôtel. A successful outcome to the talks means that B&B Hotels can add Villages Hôtel’s set of French and German budget hotels to its own, a move which takes B&B Hotels’ collection in France alone to more than 170 hotels (around 13,000 rooms). | |
| InterContinental Moscow Replaces The Minsk Hotel | Return to Headlines |
| Do not for ever seek the Minsk Hotel in the dust. Instead, raise your vailed lids and look up at what is rising in its place: the InterContinental Moscow. The Russian Rossiyskiy Kredit Bank is developing this 205-room hotel, which InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is to start managing from the scheduled opening day in 2010. It has been a week of double celebration for IHG in Eastern Europe. Bulgaria took delivery of its first Holiday Inn hotel, as Meridian Leisure Hotels presided over the official inauguration of the 130-room, five-star Holiday Inn Sofia, which forms part of the Business Park Sofia development in the Bulgarian capital. | |
| Put Out More Flags For Fairmont In Cairo | Return to Headlines |
| Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has announced the raising of a second flag in Cairo, so if we watch closely we might perhaps expect to see the following message spelt out by semaphore. “Have taken the 588-room former Sheraton Heliopolis and will manage said hotel as the Hotel Heliopolis prior to extensive renovation. Have also taken an adjacent building, out of which the 235-room Fairmont Heliopolis, Cairo will start operating this summer.” The Fairmont Heliopolis, Cairo will be a companion for the Fairmont Nile City, which is set to open in early 2008. | |
| East And Farther East Goes The Radisson SAS Brand | Return to Headlines |
| On its previous visits to Saudi Arabia with the Radisson SAS brand Rezidor Hotel Group has called at the capital Riyadh and the coastal cities of Yanbu and Jedda (twice). The company’s latest pilgrimage has taken it to the city of Mecca, where Rezidor will open the 256-room Al Diyafa Radisson SAS Hotel in 2010. The republic of Kazakhstan has also benefited from the touring Radisson SAS brand, which has called at the country for the first time. A 181-room hotel has opened in the capital Astana as part of the Arman mixed-use development. | |
| Orascom Gains Ground In Morocco | Return to Headlines |
| The Moroccan government has awarded Orascom Hotels & Development (OHD), part of the Egyptian Orascom Group, a parcel of land that covers a 15 million m² portion of southern Morocco. The land at Oued Chbika will be developed into a town that includes a mix of facilities including hotels. OHD will be assisted financially by Caisse des Dépôts et de Gestion, which will take a 30% stake in the project. The project is a piece in the plan drawn up by the Moroccan government that is designed to increase the number of tourists to more than 10 million by 2010. | |
| City Inn Heads For Amsterdam | Return to Headlines |
| City Inn has for some time had its eye on adding to its existing crop of four UK hotels by embarking on a £330 million push into continental Europe. Amsterdam was on the company’s list of preferred locations, and it is to the Dutch city that City Inn has turned first. Native firm Bouwfonds MAB is to build a 550-room hotel, costing close to a reported £100 million, as part of a mixed-use development on a site in Oosterdokseiland. The hotel is due to open in 2010. | |
| Third Set Of Twins For Golden Tulip Hospitality | Return to Headlines |
| Golden Tulip Hospitality has been out and about in the Netherlands performing its “twin act” for the gratification of the townsfolk of Zoetermeer. As the citizens of Amsterdam and Leiden will tell you, the hotel world surely has no more natural and pleasing sight to offer than the joyous coupling of Golden Tulip with its sister brand Tulip Inn. The action centred on the Golden Tulip Zoetermeer Centre, which after the consummation of the act becomes the Golden Tulip & Tulip Inn Zoetermeer Centre. The original hotel’s 30-unit apartment complex forms the Golden Tulip portion of the new hotel and the original 60 guest rooms the Tulip Inn portion. | |
| Arcotel Strikes Out For Berlin | Return to Headlines |
| “Ich bin ein Berliner”. Arcotel Hotels & Resorts can utter those words again and this time with particular resonance as the Austrian firm plans its second hotel in Berlin: a hotel inspired by President Kennedy. The four-star Arcotel John F, which will have 193 rooms, is to be built by the German firm Züblin Development. Construction work is set to begin in the second quarter of this year and is set to finish in the first quarter of 2009. Whether The Blackstone Group said, “Ich bin ein Hamburger” as it entered the German city of Hamburg is anyone’s guess; but the US private equity firm might perhaps have ordered Big Macs all round to celebrate its purchase for an undisclosed sum of the 303-room Maritim Hotel Reichshof. | |
| McNamara Takes A Stake In The Conrad Dublin | Return to Headlines |
| Bernard McNamara, the property developer who holds a stake in a number of hotels in his native Republic of Ireland, has added to his personal portfolio by taking a 45% stake in the Conrad Dublin. By applying a crude valuation of €100 million to the 192-room, five-star hotel some sources have valued Mr McNamara’s stake at €45 million. McNamara acquired the shares from a combination of the pension fund of Irish Shell and nominees of the Bank of New York. The deal is subject to the approval of the Competition Authority. | |
| The Beers Are On Orco | Return to Headlines |
| When Orco Property Group purchased the Stein brewery in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, it did so with the intention of not becoming involved in the mysteries of yeast and hops. The company rather wants to keep a clear head to allow it to concentrate fully on converting the site into a mixed-use development: one that might include a hotel. The development would cover an area of 1.6 hectares and could have a real estate value of €20 million. Those beer drinkers worried by this development will have their concerns allayed by news that Orco intends to sell and relocate the brewing plant. | |
Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 25/01/07-01/02/07
Accor - Jefferies International kept its 'Buy' rating as a mark of its approval of Accor's disposal (for €281 million) of the package holiday business Go Voyages.
Whitbread - The share price rose earlier in the week amid reports that the Reuben brothers had taken an 8% stake. Numis Securities approved of Whitbread's reported plans to bid for the Jurys Inn chain and consequently the analyst reiterated its 'Add' rating and its target price of 1,876p.
NH Hoteles - Reports in the Spanish press suggest that Hesperia, the leading shareholder in NH Hoteles, has forced directors into holding an EGM in March. Hesperia apparently wants to better understand NH's moves to take control of Jolly Hotels.
