News & Stories

Dubai. In 2005, the German Maritim Hotels appeared proud to be represented in the booming metropolis of Dubai from 2007 on. Maritim Hotels wanted to operate a 1,050-room hotel, financed by funds of the company group Recker from Hamm. Now, in July 2008, the fund "Dubai 1000 Hotelfonds" with a set volume of 142 million euros is about to fold, according to the industry service's "fondstelegramm".

Frankfurt/Berlin. "After years of steadily increasing transaction volume on both in European as well as on German markets, we seem to have hit upon a limit," Markus Beike concludes,  Director Germany for the Frankfurt and Berlin based hotel property agent and management consultancy company Christie + Co.. According to his figures, in the year 2006, around 22 billion Euros were invested in European hotels. In the year 2007 this figure fell 19 billion, though stayed constant at 2.3 billion for Germany. One year after the extent of the US credit crisis has became known, the property specialist gives his impressions of the future to hospitalityInside.com.

Cologne. The Ebertz & Partner group, Cologne, plans to capture new markets in cooperation with a British experts for commercial real estate investment. The new partner has acquired an interest by means of a profit-participating loan in Ebertz & Partner group. One E&P subsidiary is Germany's Neue Dorint GmbH.

Hamburg. Union Investment Real Estate, active in the hotel business since 1971, is among those German real estate funds which have invested most heavily in the hotel sector. The company is also among the leading real estate investment managers in Europe. The real estate portfolio held by Union Investment Real Estate currently includes 17 hotels with over 5,200 rooms at a value of approximately 1.3 billion Euros. Across all funds, hotel investments account for 9.5 percent of the value of the fund. The photo shows the Steigenberger Hotel Hamburg, part of the Europa funds of Union Investment.

Frankfurt. DekaBank plans on extending its real estate product palette for institutional investors. The new product family goes by the name of "WestInvest Target Select" and is aimed exclusively at institutional investors looking to invest in specially tailored and very individual funds concentrating on the asset classes: logistic, hotel and retail property.

Paris. Colony Capital and Eurazeo will keep 17,5 percent of Accor's capital und announced to own 30 percent of the company's shares. Both investors said that they are not interested in gaining the control of Accor. Accor's Board of Directors comments the plans.

Berlin. Finance crisis? Credit crisis? Money crisis? Whatever you call it, a palpable loss of confidence has taken foothold within the financial industry, and its roots are in the USA. "Confidence has been scattered by the wind", Norbert Walter recently said, chief economist of the Deutsche Bank. Several banks in the USA, England, France, Switzerland and even in some German states stood/stand before meltdown. Across the globe, financial markets went crazy and central banks rapidly approved cash injections - the most aggressive from the Fed, America's central bank. The aim: To recreate trust among banks and so encourage inter-bank lending. A summary of the current state of play and thoughts on the question 'Who rates the rating agencies?'

Vienna. Austria's 4-star hotels pay an average 6.42 percent of their turnover for lending rates. This is the result of a recent query of the Webmark Hotellerie industrial comparison system initiated by hospitalityInside.com. The data are based on the 2006 balance sheets. In future, hoteliers will have better tools for monitoring banks at hand. Thanks to a new application, they can make their own bank rating.

Wimbledon/London. The US Blackstone investment company is entrusting an external entity with its hotel business: Axios Hospitality headquartered in Wimbledon near London. A team of 15 specialised asset managers and financial experts is currently providing operational asset management advisory services on a  portfolio of 136 hotels with 24,000 rooms all over Europe. Most of these hotels are located in Germany and France. Managing Director Andrew Katz talked with hospitalityInside.com about the company itself and Axios' expectations of the hotel industry.

Cairo/Zurich. The Orascom hotel group of the Egyptian entrepreneur Samih Sawiris, which is strongly engaged in the canton of Uri, will move its headquarters to Switzerland and will be listed on the Swiss stock exchange. With this move, the Egyptian entrepreneur backs up his gigantic tourism project in Andermatt.