Takeover in the hotel market: Swissôtel becomes French
The French Accor Group buys the Canadian hotel company Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI), which owns the Swissôtel, Fairmont and Raffles chains and operates, among others, the luxury hotels Savoy in London and Plaza in New York.
Accor will pay 768 million euros in cash for the acquisition and also issue 46.7 million new shares. The transaction is thus valued at around 2.6 billion euros.
The acquisition will make Accor one of the global players in the luxury sector, said Sébastien Bazin, chairman and chief executive officer of Accor. The Paris-based chain, which also includes the Sofitel and Ibis brands, will then have a total of around 500 hotels. The FRHI Group owns 155 luxury hotels and resorts, including 40 project developments.
The previous FRHI co-owners - the Qatar Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund of the Emirate of Qatar and the Kingdom Holding Company investment company of Saudi Arabia - will become new major Accor shareholders.
Just a few weeks ago, the US hotel chain Marriott International also announced its intention to take over its competitor Starwood Hotels for a good twelve billion dollars. The merger would create the world's largest hotel group with more than 5,500 properties. (ah)
