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May 02, 2018
Accor Pushes Further into Luxury with $567 Million Mvenpick Deal
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Rumors of the potential acquisition surfaced at the end of last week but CEO Sebastien Bazin was unable to confirm things during an appearance at Skift Forum Europe last week. Mšvenpick has 84 hotels in 27 countries with a particularly strong presence in Europe and the Middle East. Swiss-based Mšvenpick Group is the current majority shareholder (66.7 percent) of Movenpick with Saudi conglomerate Kingdom Group holding the rest (33.3 percent). Kingdom also holds a 47.5 percent stake in Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts. The companyÕs CEO Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal was one of a number of prominent Saudi businessmen arrested in November 2017 in what was described as an anti-corruption drive. He was released in January. ÒWith the acquisition of Mšvenpick, we are consolidating our leadership in the European market and are further accelerating our growth in emerging markets, in particular in Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific,Ó Bazin said. ÒThe Mšvenpick brand is the perfect combination of modernity and authenticity and ideally complements our portfolio. Its European-Swiss heritage is a perfect fit with AccorHotels. By joining the Group, it will benefit from AccorHotelsÕ power, particularly in terms of distribution, loyalty-building and development. ÒThis transaction illustrates the strategy we intend to pursue with the opening up of AccorInvestÕs capital: to seize tactical opportunities to strengthen our positions and consolidate our leaderships, as well as leverage our growth.Ó When Accor sold a majority stake in its property unit earlier this year, it said it would use some of the funds to pay for future acquisitions. Even with this purchase, it will still have a considerable warchest. ÒThe acquisition fits in with expected use of proceeds, buying a medium sized luxury/leisure group that consolidates the leading position in current markets,Ó said Bernstein analyst Richard Clarke in a note to investors. The deal continues AccorÕs push into the luxury sphere. At one stage it was once better known as a mid-market operator but the purchase of the Fairmont, Raffles, and Swiss™tel brands in 2016 changed all that. Copyright 2018 Skift. All rights reserved.
From https://skift.com.
By Patrick Whyte, Skift. |
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