Pandox and Louvre securing their presence

Paris. AccorHotels, Europe's largest hotel group announced on Wednesday the purchase of Fairmont Raffles Hotels International Hotels & Resorts for 2.9 billion dollars in cash and shares. This is the second major hotel takeover in the past few weeks, after Marriott International bought Starwood Hotels for 12.2 billion dollars. AccorHotels' purchase financially is not as spectacular as Starwood's acquisition by Marriott but still remains significant. For the French it's the long desired ticket to the world of luxury. This is a different value.

Augsburg. The stock exchange reacted to the announced merger of AccorHotels and FRHI with a 3 percent loss. Accor has paid too much, brokers in London have stated. Either way, it certainly appears as though the ambitious AccorHotels CEO Sébastien Bazin had bought a ticket into the world of the rich and beautiful for himself for 2.9 billion dollars – after two months of negotiations only. AccorHotels would never have managed this with Sofitel alone. However, with this deal – as with others – it has not been about brands and prestige for quite some time. The two other deals of the week also demonstrate this: Pandox/Lenoardo on European level and Louvre/Nordic Hotels on the German level. Maria Puetz-Willems comments.