
Sébastien Bazin has not touched Sofitel. He is current with the work that we have been doing over the last five years. At our recent meeting in his new capacity, he assured me that Sofitel is not for sale. I feel that he understood the benefit of a luxury brand like Sofitel to the Accor organization, in the area of service, as well as to the image of the group, particularly, by owners who have a very good understanding about the change in the brand.Besides the benefit to the group's image, can Sofitel bring good financial results? Without being more precise, the repositioning and the redistribution of the network, which has gone from 206 establishments to 89 at its lowest during its "clean-up" to now have a little more than 120 hotels in operation, contributes to the group's financial results. We do not have the same volume of clientele, but the average daily prices are significantly higher than in other brands. During the financial and economic crisis in a good part of the world, was the luxury segment a shock absorber for the group? The repositioning of Sofitel largely contributes to this stabilization effect. We are not very engaged on the MICE sector, which is the first to suffer from business restrictions, and we have managed to balance, almost perfectly, between business and leisure clientele. We have gained a good part of the new luxury clientele, who have assured the development of our business. We have a long-term strategy, comprised and validated by our owners. Despite difficulties experienced in some destinations, we have benefited from never compromising on the quality of facilities or service. The best example is that of Egypt, where despite a significant drop in attendance, the RevPAR index of our two Sofitel Legend properties, in Luxor and Aswan, are among the highest in the country. Do you still need to justify Sofitel's place in the luxury segment? We have proved ourselves to those who doubted us. We are collecting trophies and recognition and we are regularly cited among the top 10 global hotel chains in the luxury category. We don't pretend to be competing for the Top Three but we are steadily climbing in the rankings. I think that the doubt was most strongly expressed by French observers and clientele who remembered a disperate national supply. This is no longer the case, even if some decisions were difficult to accept for the owners. The best proof of this change in perception is in letters from French clients, who travel around the world, who express their satisfaction as well as loyalty to have a French chain compete with the best foreign ones. What is the stated ambition of Sofitel as far as development? I believe that we will have achieved an ideal size for a global luxury chain at around 150 establishments in the world's most important locations. We have at least about thirty establishments in the pipeline for the next 7 years, thus I am not worried about reaching this goal. Each year, I believe that the chain should evolve with entries and exits, so that the landowners consider us a "Club" that only accepts the best establishments and that does not compromise on the quality of service and equipment. How many properties do you think are currently in sync with the ideal Sofitel product? We should separate ourselves from 8 to 9 establishments in the months and years to come. In the global network of 150 establishments, where do you see the place of the So label for design hotels and Legend label for "historical monuments"? With about 15 So by Sofitel hotels, we will be quite visible in the larger cities that count, and there won't need to be more than 10 Legend hotels, which each have a very unique character. We have just signed a management contract for a Legend in Xian in China and we have several others under consideration, but the opportunities are rare. And in Paris? Paris remains at the top of the list of priorities... And for So by Sofitel? After Mauritius with Kenzo and Bangkok with Christian Lacroix, we are opening one in Singapore at the end of the year with Karl Lagerfeld. We would love to have one in Brazil, and another in Dubai. What are the next expected opening announcements? In Europe, we have two projects under construction in Moscow, one near Red Square, the other near the business district; a new hotel in Kiev and a coming announcement in Berlin. We are also very happy to have won the bid on a superb establishment in Frankfurt against a famous Asian group. We are also considering a project in Prague which will regain a good level of activity. We are actively working on the United States where we hope to make a coming announcement and Latin America. China remains important to us, with 18 establishments already in operation. Each of them is a window for Chinese clientele who are starting to appreciate luxury hotels when they travel abroad.