Accor in talks to buy Canada’s FRHI Hotels & Resorts for $3 bn
30 Oct 2015
Accor SA, Europe's largest hotel group, is planning to buy Canada-based FRHI Hotels & Resorts for about $3 billion, The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported, citing unnamed sources.
FRHI had hired Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley to estimate the market value of the company, the report said.
The Toronto-based hotel management company is owned by Qatar-based Katara Hospitality and Saudi Arabia's investment holding company Kingdom Holding Company.
The company was formed in 2006, when Kingdom Holdings and Colony Capital entered into a joint venture, which acquired Fairmont Hotels and Resorts and combined Fairmont's business with Colony Capital owned Raffles Hotels International, the parent for the Raffles and Swissotel brands.
Qatari Diar affiliate Voyager Partners later acquired a majority stake in FRHI Hotels & Resorts in 2010.
FRHI manages three brands of hotels, Fairmont, Raffles, and Swissôtel with over 100 hotels and resorts in 30 countries worldwide.
Based in Paris, Accor owns, operates and franchises 3,792 hotels having a total of 495,072 rooms on 5 continents.
Its brands cover luxury - Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Grand Mercure, The Sebel, midscale - Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure, Mama Shelter, Adagio and economy - ibis, ibis Styles, ibis budget, adagio access and hotelF.
It has a market cap of € 10.7 billion, and posted net loss of €96 million last year on revenues of €2.72 million.
It recently acquired a portfolio of 43 hotels from Foncière des Régions for €281 million.
