AccorHotels has announced that it will acquire Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts for €482 million (estimated at US$567 million) in cash, from Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Company and its partners.  This move continues the Paris-based company’s efforts to expand in emerging markets, particularly in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.  The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2018, subject to regulatory approvals. Sébastien Bazin, the CEO of AccorHotels, commented on the acquisition saying, “…we are consolidating our leadership in the European market and are further accelerating our growth in emerging markets, in particular in Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.”  Bazin also added that this transaction was in line with group’s strategy to open up “AccorInvest’s capital: to seize tactical opportunities to strengthen our positions and consolidate our leaderships, as well as leverage our growth.”  AccorInvest is the group’s real estate investment subsidiary, which was spun off in 2013, with the objective of becoming Europe’s leading hotel investor and opening up capital to long-term investors.  AccorInvest will undertake the group’s renovation, acquisition and construction of hotels.

Mövenpick was founded in 1973, in Switzerland.  Today, it operates 84 properties with more than 20,000 rooms, mostly in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  The Swiss-based hotel operator just opened its first hotel in Kenya – its second in Sub-Saharan Africa – after the Mövenpick Hotel Accra, which opened in 2011.  Mövenpick plans to open 42 more hotels by 2021 representing an increase of almost 11,000 rooms, including five properties in Egypt, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Ethiopia.

Recent notable acquisitions of hotel operators by AccorHotels include the 2016 acquisition of FRHI Hotels & Resorts, the operators of Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel, and the recent acquisition of the South African Mantis Group.