Paris-based hotel chain AccorHotels is buying FRHI, the company that owns luxury hotel brands Raffles, Swissôtel and Canada’s Fairmont for about US$2.9 billion in cash and shares.
FRHI’s joint owners are the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Kingdom Holding Company of Saudi Arabia and Oxford Properties, the real estate division of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. QIA and King Holding will each retain minority stakes in the new company, while Oxford will not.
“This is an outstanding opportunity to add three prestigious brands – Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel – to our portfolio, and a great step forward for AccorHotels. It offers us robust and global leadership in luxury hotels, a very important key segment for us,” said Sébastien Bazin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AccorHotels.
AccorHotels currently manages more than 3,800 hotels across 92 countries worldwide under the brand names such as Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel, Ibis and others. Meanwhile the three companies acquired own 155 hotels and resorts (40 are under development), and more than 56,000 rooms worldwide. That includes iconic hotels such as the Fairmont Banff Springs, Royal York Hotel in Toronto and other well-known properties around the world such as Raffles Singapore, The Savoy in London and The Plaza Hotel in New York.
Raffles Hotel in Singapore (courtesy of Raffles Hotels & Resorts)
Newly-opened Fairmont Jakarta (courtesy of Fairmont)
This news came in a not-too-distant time with a huge hotel merger few months ago from the one million rooms worldwide pact between Marriott International and Starwood Hotels and Resorts. We hear reports already about the merger of Le Club AccorHotels, Accor’s award-winning loyalty program with Fairmont President’s Club, Raffles Ambassador and Swissôtel Circle, but not yet in detail of how the new program will look like for the acquired hotels.
