News & Stories

Frankfurt/M. For four months now the subprime crisis and its consequences have been keeping the international financial market in suspense. Many banks are still unwilling to pass on liquidity, and it is still unclear what risks lure inside the books of the individual market participants. In Germany, the turbulences had an impact on Basel I, the currently valid bank risk management system. For most German and European banks will not be introducing the new Basel II equity capital regulation before 2008. The banks are optimistic that they will again be able to grant loans as of January. Martina Fidlschuster, Managing Director of the Hotour consultancy in Frankfurt and member of hospitalityInside.com's circle of experts, explains the situation.

Duesseldorf. Heavily rising costs can lead to hotel real estate calculated a year ago no longer being realisable.

Berlin. Two days prior to anniversary celebrations at the Kempinski Hotel Adlon in Berlin, shareholders attending the Fundus shareholders meeting decided to place shares to the amount of 30 million Euros for the sister hotel in Heiligendamm at the Baltic Sea. Over 90% of the 1,900 shareholders were in favour of the motion that the new shareholders will get their dividens preferentially to elder shareholdes. Following the G8 summit and the budget-bed campaign, occupancy rates at the luxury hotel will in 2007 for the first time cross the 50% threshold.

London. The Austrian Jakob Forstnig refuses to accept the term "locust": His employer, the British Mountain Capital Ltd., was a serious private-equity partner with a considerable interest in the German-speaking and European markets. Actually, there is a connection to Germany: Mountain Capital is backed by two Jewish families of German origin. They have bought and repositioned hotels in Germany and fetched the German luxury hotelier Thomas Althoff as operator to London in the meantime. Jakob Forstnig, who worked for private hotels and for Marriott in the operational hotel business, and was a consultant at Treugast in Munich and HVS International in London, represents Mountain Capital in continental Europe.

Berlin. DekaBank, the biggest provider of open real estate funds in Germany, wants to continue to conquer new markets and increase investment, above all in hotel property outside Europe. The plan was announced at the Expo Real in Munich.

Munich. When will the first hotel REIT appear and how will it be structured? While the panel of experts at the Expo Real weren't giving much away on the matter, renowned companies have been discreetly working on a hotel REIT for quite a while.

Munich Hotel real estate as investment opportunity is presently experiencing an all time high. But what buyers are currently active on the European market and where are they looking to invest? What types of contract will be used in future? Has the recent credit crisis already had ramifications on property prices? Questions such as these were addressed by numerous panels of experts at the 10th Expo Real in Munich.

Munich. Interest rates of the Bavarian Mittelstandskreditprogramm have been reduced by 0.25 percent for investments of existing companies. Even the clearly lower interest rates for business start-ups will be reduced by another 0.1 percent. This also includes the hotel industry.