AccorHotels acquires FRHI Hotels & Resorts

3 min reading time

Published on 09/12/15 - Updated on 17/03/22

Plaza Hotel New York

Finally, the French group became the owner of the Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel brands, for a portfolio of 155 luxury hotels and resorts that are operational and under development for more than 56,000 rooms worldwide.

AccorHotels has annouced the signing of an agreement with Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Kingdom Holding Company of Saudia Arabia (KHC) and Oxford Properties, a firm owned by Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), for the acquisition of acquisition the group FRHI Holdings Ltd (FRHI), owner of the brands Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel. The French groups thus gains a portfolio of 155 hotels and resorts (including 40 under development) and more than 56,000 rooms (of which 13,000 are under development). These properties include legendary properties such as Raffles in Singapore, the Savoy in London, the Plaza Hotel in New York and the Royal Monceau - Raffles Paris.

In this way AccorHotels expands its geographic coverage of the luxury segment and strengthens its position on the segment thanks to properties owned bi FRHI that are located in 34 countries on five continents, with 42 properties in North America, 2 in South America, 26 in Europe, 17 in Africa / Middle East and 28 in the Asia-Pacific area. The vast majority of hotels (108) is operated through very long term management contracts, with a residual average terms of close to 30 years; six hotels are operated through a rental contract and one is owned. the new owner hopes extricate some 65 million euros from revenue and cost synergies, especially through the combination of brands, maximization of hotel results, the increased efficiency of marketing actions, sales and distribution channels, and optimizes support costs.

The owners of FHRI Hotels & Resorts, the Qatari government and the Kingdom Holding Company of the Saudi prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal, had called upon the banks Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank last June to launch the sale of the hotel group. Different suitors arose: InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) made an offer in September. In the end, the French group Accor took it home for some 2.6 billion euros.

The agreement reached with Qatar Investment Authority and Kingdom Holding Company of Saudia Arabia plans to pay 840 million US dollars cash (or 768 million euros based on the current exchange rate) plus 46.7 million in Accor shares. These titles will be issued through reserved capital increase subject to the approval of shareholders in a Special General Meeting. At the end of this operation, QIA and KHC will become shareholders for Accor, with 10.5% and 5.8% of the Group's capital respectively. Two QIA representatives and a KHC representative will be appointed to Accor's board of directors.

This operation, which continues to be subject to the approval of the competition authorities, shouldallow AccorHotels to become the 5th global hotel group ahead of Choice Hotels (see the full ranking for 2015, which will be upset next year by the Marriott+Starwood and Jin Jiang+Plateno mergers, which are also in the final stages). This operation particularly strengthens the weight of the upscale and luxury group Accor, a segment on which it wqas previously less established. The French group will also become number 5 worldwide among the upscale and luxury range:



Supply of International hotel groups on the upscale and luxury segments as of 1/1/2015

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