Hotel News Now each week features a news roundup from a different region of the world. This week’s compilation covers Europe.
STR Global: Europe results for October
The European hotel industry posted mixed results in year-over-year metrics when reported in U.S. dollars, euros and British pounds for October 2014, according to data compiled by HNN’s sibling company STR Global.
STR Global: European pipeline for October
The Europe hotel development pipeline comprises 905 hotels totaling 142,785 rooms, according to the October 2014 STR Global Construction Pipeline Report. The under contract data includes projects in the in construction, final planning and planning stages but does not include projects in the unconfirmed stage.
Year-to-date 2014, 391 hotels with 61,961 rooms have opened in Europe. In the remainder of the year, 74 more hotels with 8,412 rooms are planned to open. The upper-midscale segment (19 hotels with 1,973 rooms) and the economy segment (14 hotels with 1,933 rooms) are expected to open the most rooms.
Jin Jiang agrees to buy Louvre in €1.2b deal
Shanghai Jin Jiang International Holdings has agreed to buy Louvre Hotels Group from Starwood Capital Group, writes HNN’s Patrick Mayock. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although reports put the value of the acquisition at more than €1.2 billion ($1.5 billion).
Accor, Europe’s largest hotel group, was also a bidder for the company, submitting at least one offer on 5 November. Louvre has more than 1,100 hotels comprising 91,000-plus rooms in 47 countries. Its portfolio includes five brands from the 1-star Première Classe to the 5-star Royal Tulip.
De Vere Village sale bodes well for UK hotels
The former De Vere empire now has been fully broken up, with United States private equity company KSL Capital Partners buying the last part of the puzzle, De Vere Village, for £480 million ($756 million), writes HNN’s Terence Baker.
Most commentators said earlier in 2014 the initial bid for the portfolio would be £450 million ($712 million), the final sale price being a 6.7% improvement on that, and that the strength of the deal would be a firm indication of the strength of the entire United Kingdom hotel industry.
Invesco cash fuels hostel-hotels to next level
More U.S. private equity money entered the European hotel scene with Invesco Limited signing a deal with Patron Capital to take a 23% stake in Generator Hostels for €60 million ($75 million) of growth capital.
And as Terence Baker writes, the message of this deal is clear: Hostel-hotels should now be considered a major asset class and a development in the hotel industry that has distinct parallels with the boutique hotel rise and boom in the 1980s.
Italian sovereign wealth enters hotel scene
Rocco Forte Hotels has secured a new lease on life with a £60-million ($95-million) equity injection from Fondo Strategico Italiano, which marks first time Italy’s sovereign wealth fund has entered the hotel space, writes Terence Baker.
FSI, which was formed in 2011, is injecting the capital into Rocco Forte Hotels, which has a portfolio of 11 properties, in exchange for a 23% stake, which values the enlarged equity at £260 million ($413 million).
Redefine|BDL add 22 IHG hotels to portfolio
Management company Redefine|BDL Hotels added 22 InterContinental Hotels Group-branded hotels and 6,000 rooms to its portfolio. Included in the portfolio are 19 Holiday Inn hotels and three Crowne Plaza-branded properties in the United Kingdom. The properties are owned by LRG Acquisition Limited.
“This is a landmark addition to the Redefine|BDL Hotels portfolio,” said CEO Helder Pereira.
Accor and Orbis in 46-hotel Poland deal
Poland’s largest hotel group Orbis has approved an offer from majority owner Accor Hotels to purchase 46 Accor properties in central and eastern Europe for €142.3 million ($177.2 million. The agreement will give Orbis the “right to operate until 2035 the hotel business under the Accor brands in 16 countries.”
The deal, expected to close next year, is for 38 existing hotels and eight pipeline properties, to all be added to its roster of 68 hotels. Orbis’ new additions include 11 owned (1,974 rooms), 17 leased (3,573 rooms), 11 managed (1,685 rooms) and seven franchised (821 rooms) properties.
Deals and developments
- Meliá Hotels International will open the 41-room Meliá Campione by the end of the year in Campione d’Italia, Italy, close to the border with Switzerland. The hotel’s owner is investment group The Khamas.
- U.K. budget brand Premier Inn will enter the German market with a 200-room Frankfurt to open in autumn 2015 in cooperation with German property developer GBI AG.
- Hotel management company Oetker Collection will manage London’s 93-room Lanesborough Hotel when it reopens after a renovation next spring.
- Marriott International has announced its first JW Marriott for Italy, the 266-room JW Marriott Venice Resort & Spa, which will open in March 2015.
- In Scotland, Accor has signed a franchise partnership with Edinburgh City Hotels Limited to open next spring a 110-room Mercure, while in Glasgow, it signed an agreement for a 101-room Ibis Styles that will be managed and operated by Redefine BDL Hotels.
- Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group has sold the 478-room Park Inn by Radisson Amsterdam to a European-Israeli investor group for an undisclosed sum.
Compiled by Terence Baker.