Hotel News Now each week features a news roundup from a different region of the world. This week’s compilation covers Europe.

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has become the majority shareholder in the Sani Resort and Ikos Group, its capital investment valuing the company at 2.3 billion euros ($2.27 billion). As part of the deal, former stakeholders Florac, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Hermes GPE, Moonstone and Oaktree Capital Management will exit the company's ownership group.

The resort operator has 10 luxury all-inclusive resorts along the Mediterranean coast in Greece and Spain. The new owners will invest more than 900 million euros over the next five years, writes Hotel News Now’s Terence Baker.

Austrian hotel firm Vienna House, which has 40 assets in Europe, has been acquired by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Vienna House is the Parsippany, U.S.-based firm’s 23rd brand, and Wyndham’s Dimitris Manikis, president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, described it as “a curious brand,” writes HNN’s Robert McCune.

Commenting on the Sept. 8 deal, Manikis said it has “a curiosity about it, and then some really curious elements. To me, that curiosity is what will help us to promote the brand going forward.” He said the goal is to add five to 10 hotels to the brand in its first year of ownership.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8 brought hundreds of thousands of domestic and international travelers to London for the mourning period and funeral, which resulted in hotels reporting high average daily rates.

ADR for London hotels for the weekend before the Sept. 19 funeral increased from 244 pounds sterling ($254.51) per night to 384 pounds sterling, according to Hayley Berg, lead economist, Hopper.

French hotel group Accor has debuted its 400th hotel in Australia, the milestone coming a little more than three decades since the France-based hotel company entered the market with the Novotel Sydney Darling Harbour in 1991.

Accor’s October 2017 acquisition of the Mantra hotel brand helped boost it robust portfolio in the area, and of its 43 brands, Australia has 19.

The United Kingdom’s currency, the pound sterling, has seen several noticeable drops against the U.S. dollar, but on Monday it fell to its lowest ever level since records began, valued at $1.03. In the week beginning Sept. 19, the U.K.’s central bank, Bank of England, raised interest rates by 50 basis points to 2.25%, and there is speculation it might hold an emergency meeting this week.

The latest drop has been instigated by macroeconomic policy from the country’s new government. On Sept. 23, Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng announced a tax cut valued at 45 billion pounds sterling that some worry involves too much borrowing. At press time, the pound sterling had risen slightly in value, at $1.08. The news likely will see more international visitors to the U.K., which is good news for hoteliers.

• The largest hotel operator in Scandinavia, Scandic Hotels Group, has opened the 352-room Scandic Helsinki Hub in the Finnish capital.
  
• German real estate firm Union Investment has made its debut investment in Scandinavia with the acquisition of the 25hours Hotel Copenhagen Paper Island, with 128 rooms, which is part of the regenerated Paper Island cultural and entertainment project due to open in 2024.
  
• Radisson Hotel Group has debuted its Radisson Red brand in Poland with the 30-room Radisson Red Gdańsk in the city known as the birthplace of trade union Solidarity.
• Radisson also has opened the 75-room Radisson Blu, Perth, in Perth, Scotland, a small city that markets itself as the Gateway to the Scottish Highlands. The property is in a stately, Grade II-listed building from 1890 that was built in the heyday of train travel.
  
• Marriott International and owners Bain Capital Credit and Omnam Group will open the 145-room Lake Como Edition in 2025 in a 19th-century building on the lake’s western shore.
  
• Deutsche Hospitality has announced it will open a House of Beats hotel in Hamburg with 263 rooms in conjunction with owners GBI and Nord Project; it will be adjacent to a 200-apartment SmartMents property from the same developers that will provide accommodation for students and trainees of the MeltingPot business development.
  
• Hyatt Hotels Corp. has reopened the renovated 197-room La Zambra in Málaga, Spain. Part of its soft brand Unbound Collection, the hotel is a recreation of the famous Byblos Hotel, which first opened in 1984 as a retreat for the celebrity and jet-set guest.

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