News & Stories

White Plains. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. has closed on a sale of 28 hotels - including hotels under the Sheraton, W, Westin, St. Regis and Luxury Collection brands - to Host Marriott Corporation.

Berlin. The US finance investor Blackstone has now officially announced interest in the acquisition of the Grand Hotel Esplanade in Berlin. Hotel owners maintain their silence.

Munich/Berlin. Three of the five winners of the current "Investment-Ranking Hotellerie 2006" come from the mid-price segment. This will be announced by Treugast Unternehmensberatung tomorrow, March 8, at the ITB in Berlin. Apart from that, numerous minor changes in the ranking display a varied state of the industry.

Berlin. Banks still regard hotel financing as a risky investment. However, most of the time, they lack the feeling for market trends and courage to take on niche hotels. Flexible contract models and private equity raise a glimmer of hope among operators.

London. UK-based 4-star hotel chain Macdonald Hotels is joining the long list of hoteliers undertaking a sale-and-manage back deal in order to raise funds. The 65-strong group has appointed Deloitte to advise it on the £ 200 million-plus sale of about 20 properties.

New York. In its latest deal Blackstone paid 10,45 US-Dollar a share or a 5,2 percent premium on MeriStar's closing price. The price represents 13 times projected 2007 earnings for MeriStar. Scooping up these hotels has led to speculation on Wall Street that Blackstone is preparing an initial public offering for its hotel property unit.

Munich. 2005 was an extraordinary year for fund initiators in Germany. Due to numerous legal and fiscal changes investors were up one minute and down the next. It is all the more astonishing that despite all this, an outstanding placing success was achieved to the tune of 12.3 billion euros. This is the result of the "Marktanalyse der Beteiligungsmodelle" by the journalist and analyst Stefan Loipfinger. Hotel real estate, however, is experiencing losses. They are performing against the trend.

Geneva. Swiss hotels are said to be notoriously unprofitable. Two years ago, Hôtels et Patrimoine was founded in order to acquire small underperforming hotels in the Lake of Geneva region and improving their cashflow and profitability through repositioning them as extended stay properties. Up to today, only tow of eight planned hotels were acquired. It is not easy to generate the capital needed.

London. InterContinental Hotels Group has placed a further portfolio of seven hotels on the market for disposal. These hotels are located in Continental Europe and all operate under the InterContinental brand.

Copenhagen. Danish Property Group plans to invest at least 700 to 800 million Euros this year alone in real estate in Germany - hotels included.