The perfect luxury fit?

Paris/London. The luxury group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Belmond Ltd., owners, part-owners or managers of 46 luxury hotel, restaurant, train and river cruise properties, today jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for LVMH to acquire Belmond. LVMH is to acquire Belmond for $25.00 per Class A share in cash. This represents an equity value of $2.6 billion in a transaction with an enterprise value of $3.2 billion.

Paris. AccorHotels announced on Monday that it has signed an agreement to acquire Gekko, a major player in the business travel hotel reservation segment valued 100 million euros. Also AccorHotels acquired a 50% stake in the share capital of Orient Express. And in Berlin, the private hotel Das Stue now belongs to the group's luxury hotel brands.

London/Munich. Next month, Belmond celebrates its 40th birthday. For 38 years, the group bore the name Orient-Express Hotels - and indeed its history with this name is unique. It began in 1976 as James B. Sherwood acquired the Cipriani in Venice and a few years later launched the Venice Simplon Orient Express. Now, President & CEO Roeland Vos wants to put Belmond on a new journey. Within five years, up to the end of 2020, the luxury hotel group is to grow from 44 to 80-97 palaces, residences and boutique hotels, nostalgic luxury trains, river cruises and safari lodges. An ambitious plan. In recent years, Belmond made the headlines by selling its trophy assets. This has now come to an end. And with many other things too.