Accor Hotels acquires FRHI Hotels & Resorts for US$840 million

Accor Hotels has announced the acquisition of FRHI Hotels & Resorts for US$840 million.

The FRHI group’s hotel portfolio, which includes the Fairmont, Raffles, and Swissôtel brands, spans five continents, and 34 countries. Also included in the purchase price are 46.7 million Accor shares.

The transaction sees joint FRHI owners the Qatar Investment Authority and Kingdom Holding Company of Saudi Arabia become major Accor shareholders, with a 10.5% and 5.8% per cent of share capital respectively.

This deal will hugely expand Accor’s already significant hospitality footprint of almost 500 properties around the world. Together, Fairmont, Raffles, and Swissôtel have 115 hotels in operation, with a further 40 in development.

Combined, the three hotel groups have a room capacity of 43,000 rooms, with another 13,000 currently in development. Sébastien Bazin, chairman and chief Executive of Accor Hotel, said: 

“This is an outstanding opportunity to add three prestigious brands to our portfolio. It’s a great step forward for Accor Hotels that offers us robust and global leadership in luxury hotels. This major acquisition demonstrates the group’s agility in a fast-changing industry. “

The prestigious global hotels under the FRHI agenda include The Savoy in London, The Plaza Hotel in New York, Raffles Singapore, the Le Royal Monceau – Raffles Paris and the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai.

Accor anticipates the generation of an additional US$65 million in revenue from the acquisition of the FRHI group.