Hotel News Now each week features a news roundup from a different region of the world. This week’s compilation covers Europe.
Accor sets record revenue and sponsors PSG shirt
AccorHotels, now known simply as Accor, posted its full-year 2018 numbers and announced on 21 February a record revenue of €3.6 billion ($4.1 billion), a 16.9% increase over 2017, and a goal of reaching earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of €1.2 billion ($1.36 billion) by 2022, reports HNN’s Terence Baker.
The French hotel chain has dropped the “hotels” part of its name to underline its move into other hospitality areas, although hotels will remain its core activity. It also announced an additional €225 million ($255.4 million) would be spent on its loyalty program and a shirt sponsorship of Paris-based soccer club Paris Saint-Germain that will begin in the 2019/2020 season.
IHG buys ultra-luxury Six Senses
InterContinental Hotels Group has bought its second luxury portfolio in a year with the 13 February acquisition of Bangkok-based Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas for $300 million, Baker reports. Last March, IHG acquired Regent Hotels & Resorts as its—at least then—highest-segment brand.
Six Senses currently has 17 operating assets but has 17 management contracts in its pipeline and an additional 50 hotels in active discussion. The last property to have opened was on 1 March, the 40-key Six Senses Krabey Island, Cambodia.
STR: Europe hotel supply
Europe reported 162,372 rooms in construction, according to the January pipeline report from STR, parent company of Hotel News Now. Germany led the way with 46,498 rooms in construction, or 7.1% of existing supply.
The U.K. has 37,015 rooms in construction, which represents 5.6% of its current supply.
Overall, Europe has 162,372 rooms in construction in 1,317 properties, while in final planning are a further 101,426 rooms in 1,485 properties.
IHG to return more cash, launch all-suite brand
IHG also announced its full-year 2018 numbers, which saw year-on-year, global revenue per available room increase by 2.5% and the strategy of returning a special dividend of $500 million to shareholders at its next annual general meeting, Baker reports. IHG has returned more than $700 million in the last 12 months.
The Denham, U.K.-based hotel firm also said it would later this year launch a new all-suite brand in the upper-midscale segment that would be first offered to core owners. No name has been chosen as yet, but CEO Keith Barr said its focus would be on an “$18-billion pool of guests in this segment.”
Whitbread in £2-billion share buyback plan
Whitbread PLC, owner of the Premier Inn chain, will spend £2 billion ($2.6 billion) of the proceeds of the 2018 sale of its £3.9 billion ($5.09 billion) Costa Coffee division to Coca-Cola on repurchasing its shares, Reuters reports.
Executives said the buyback would allow the firm to “double the long-term network potential at its hotels business to more than 170,000 rooms in Britain and overseas.” It currently has approximately 74,000 keys.
Nine UK Hilton hotels sold for $315 million
Vivion Investments Sarl acquired nine United Kingdom Hilton-branded, leased hotels for a total sum of £246 million ($315 million) from a group owned by Iranian-British businessman Vincent Tchenguiz, Bloomberg reports. The assets, known as the Project Zinc portfolio, were placed under bankruptcy protection following an unsuccessful attempt to sell them in 2017.
The portfolio also included the 601-room Hilton London Kensington, which was sold late last year and separately for £261.5 million ($341.27 million) to a group owned by businessman Bakir Cola.
Deals and developments
- Paris-based real-estate investment trust Amundi Immobilier has bought the 149-room INK Hotel MGallery by Sofitel in Amsterdam for approximately €60 million ($68 million) from peer Principal Real Estate Europe. Accor will continue to manage the hotel;
- Whitbread PLC’s hotel chain Premier Inn opened its second hotel in Germany on 28 February, the 182-room Premier Inn Hamburg. The chain plans to have 20 hotels in this new market by the end of 2020;
- Corinthia Hotels Group has announced it is to open a property in the Russian capital of Moscow. The asset does not yet have a room count. It will be at 10, Tverskaya, adjacent to Red Square and in a former, 19th Century bakery, Filippov, that has a listed façade;
- Scandic Hotels Group has agreed to sell its 113-room Scandic Hasselbacken, in the Swedish capital Stockholm, for approximately SEK230 million Swedish krona million ($25 million) to Pop House AB, which began management of it on 1 March and already operates the Pop House Hotel and one of Stockholm’s biggest attractions, ABBA The Museum;
- Accor has signed six U.K. Mercure hotels under a hotel management agreement with Danish firm Proark, which will add 864 rooms in Bedford, Birmingham, Cardiff, Harlow, Nottingham and Telford and open between the second quarter of this year and the fourth of 2020;
- One of Europe’s most-famous and grandest hotels, the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo has completed a four-year-long renovation, with a new room count of 207 keys and a new restaurant by chef Alain Ducasse, Ô Mer, to go along with his 3 Michelin-starred Louis XV – Alain Ducasse à l’Hôtel de Paris;
- Hilton signed a management agreement with Icarus Spa to open the 439-room Hilton Rome Eur La Lama in the suburb of Rome of Eur.
Compiled by Terence Baker.