Accor buys control of 52 Dorint hotels

International hotel manager Accor has announced the acquisition of a 90% stake in a hotel portfolio comprising 52 Dorint hotels in Germany. The transaction price comes to EUR 127 mln and brings the total number of hotels operated by Accor in the country to 331. The company previously owned a 34% stake in Dorint, as a result of a partnership started in 2002.

Accor said in a press release that the acquisition will be carried out in two phases. In the first one, Dorint will split into two separate units and will transfer to one of them the 52 hotel portfolio. Accor will raise its stake up to 90% in this new company by subscribing a EUR 52 mln capital increase and by investing an additional EUR 75 mln in the company by the first half of this year. The other company, which will result from Dorint's split, will operate 41 Dorint hotels in Germany and will be controlled by the family-owned Ebertz & Partners.

The transaction is expected to generate around EUR 300 mln in revenue, Accor said, and the profit is expected to be about EUR 10 mln before tax in 2007. The transaction needs the approval by the European competition authorities, which is expected within the next few weeks. Accor, a leading company in the European hotels and tourism sector, operates in nearly 100 countries with about 4,000 hotels.