HVS EMEA Hospitality Enews - Week Ending 14 January 2005
Three nights before Christmas the Monegasque air was rent with the sound of the premature tearing of wrapping paper. The present beneath was the 619-room Monte Carlo Grand Hotel and the eager fingers those belonging to the hotel's new owners: a joint venture of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Kingdom Hotels International and Bank of Scotland Corporate (BoS). The trio have a potential US$1.
Trio Aim For Cream In Europe. First Stop: Monaco - Three nights before Christmas the Monegasque air was rent with the sound of the premature tearing of wrapping paper. The present beneath was the 619-room Monte Carlo Grand Hotel and the eager fingers those belonging to the hotel's new owners: a joint venture of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Kingdom Hotels International and Bank of Scotland Corporate (BoS). The trio have a potential US$1.5 billion at their disposal to make similar purchases in the European luxury sector, with BoS providing 50% of the equity funding and all of the debt funding. The joint venture's first purchase will be known as The Fairmont Monte Carlo from March and can expect to enjoy refurbishment work costing US$50 million. The hotel will be managed by Fairmont, as will any others purchased.
Nikko Principal Investments Acquires Menzies Hotels - Menzies Hotels starts the new year in the hands of a new owner: Nikko Principal Investments, the European principal finance arm of Japan's Nikko Cordial Corporation. The £120 million deal sees the departure of existing institutional investors (led by BancBoston Capital) but the retention of Chairman Nick Menzies and other senior managers. Their company now has a secure base from which to explore further opportunities in the UK four-star sector. The chain currently has 14 hotels across the UK, which between them have a total of more than 1,200 rooms.
Winter-Flowering Tulips In Germany - On the stroke of the new year Golden Tulip Hotels (GTH) struck out for Germany to open what is its second new hotel in the country inside the last two months. On New Year's Day the Hotel Hamburg in Berlin became the 191-room Golden Tulip Berlin – Hotel Hamburg and GTH's fourth hotel in the capital. The company announced this week that it had crossed into northern Germany on 1 November to relaunch the Hotel Widukind in the town of Wolfenbüttel as the 48-room Golden Tulip Wolfenbüttel. Both hotels will be operated by RIMC International, Golden Tulip Hotels' long-term management partner in German-speaking parts of Europe.
Park Lake Hotels Takes Holiday Inn Swansea - Park Lake Hotels has ventured down to south Wales to purchase the Holiday Inn Swansea from InterContinental Hotels Group for an undisclosed sum. The 106-room hotel had a minimum asking price of £5.75 million when its arrival on the market was announced last July. The same part of the country was host this week too to Accor, which had come to open the 144-room Novotel Cardiff Centre. The hotel, Accor's third in the Welsh capital, was formerly the Hanover International Hotel & Club.
Hawthorn Suites Brings Turkey To Life After Christmas - The Hawthorn Suites brand will make its debut in Turkey next summer. Hawthorn Hotels & Suites Brand Management, which holds the brand licence in that country, and also in the Middle East and North Africa, has begun work on the Hawthorn Karaca Resort in the southern town of Bodrum. The 65-room luxury property is owned by Turkish businessman Seyfi Karaca.
Golden Tulip Starts The New Year In The UAE - The latest addition to Golden Tulip Hotels' portfolio in the Middle East is the 170-room, four-star Golden Tulip Al Jazira Hotel & Resort in the United Arab Emirates. Across in North Africa, meanwhile, Tunisia has welcomed Maritim Hotels for a second time. The 184-room Hotel Alhambra Thalasspa, which opened in Yasmine Hammamet last June, prefixed its name with the word Maritim on 1 January.
Henry Stewart Briefing On Hotel Funding - If one of your new year resolutions is to find out more about hotel funding, then you could begin your quest for knowledge at no better place than the Radisson SAS Portman Hotel in London. On 25 January a Henry Stewart Briefing is to be held there, an event that will cover all aspects of the subject in a clear and comprehensive manner. Russell Kett, the Managing Director of HVS International's London office, is your chairman, and speakers include Chris Eddis (Mornington Capital), Bob Silk (Barclays Bank) and Dominique Bourdais, a Director at HVS International's London office. For more information you are invited to contact Christiana Sztadhaus +44 (0)207 404 3040 or email
AbsAbsolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 06/01/05-13/01/05
- InterContinental Hotels Group - The share price was buoyed by earlier share buy-backs.
- Hilton Group - UBS upgraded its rating from 'Neutral' to 'Buy'.
- Accor - Though it kept its 'Hold' rating, Deutsche Bank lowered its profit-per-share forecast for 2005 by 10%.
Charles Human, MD Investment Services at
Dominique Bourdais, Director at
Christopher Mumford, MD Executive Search at
Laurent de Kousemaeker, Director at