AccorHotels has announced that it has completed the sale of 57.8 per cent of the capital of AccorInvest.
The stake will go to the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia (Public Investment Fund) and GIC of Singapore, as well as institutional investors Colony NorthStar, Crédit Agricole Assurances and Amundi, and others.
For AccorHotels, the transaction results in a gross cash contribution of €4.6 billion, which is slightly more than the €4.4 billion announced in February and in line with the higher percentage of capital finally sold.
AccorHotels will therefore hold 42.2 per cent of the capital of AccorInvest, which will no longer be included in the group’s consolidated financial statements as of June 1st.
Sébastien Bazin, chairman of AccorHotels, said: “By completing the sale of close to 58 per cent of the capital of AccorInvest, we have successfully finalised the transformation process begun five years ago.
“The deal enables us to further accelerate the development of AccorHotels by focusing our resources and energy on strengthening our brand portfolio and our leadership position in key markets, and on pursuing our strategy of delivering innovation and excellence to our guests and hotel owner partners.
“With our new, primarily asset-light structure, we will be able to deploy our ambitious and disruptive vision of ‘augmented hospitality’ to the full.”
As part of the transaction, AccorHotels and AccorInvest will maintain their close, long-standing relationship through very-long-term partnership agreements.
John Ozinga, chief executive of AccorInvest, said: “Today is the start of a new chapter for AccorInvest.
“With greater resources and fully engaged teams, we are now going to speed up the consolidation of our portfolio, the renovation and repositioning of our assets, and the development of new projects.
“Drawing on the strength of AccorHotels’ brands, we intend to cement our position as the leading hotel investor in Europe by enhancing the attractiveness and value of our hotel portfolio.”