City poised for us moves on thistle
by Christina Golding
SPECULATION is mounting that Thistle Hotels is soon to be sold to a US investment company following a strategic review by its main shareholder.
It is understood that Brierley Investments, which owns 46% of Thistle, has been keen to offload its holding, but has been waiting for the share price to rise well above its 170p flotation price to give it sufficient return on its investment.
Analysts are expecting US-based real estate investment trusts to make a move within weeks. UK hotel groups have been ruled out because the size of Thistle, the second largest UK group in terms of bedrooms, makes it more financially difficult for a UK buyout.
Last week Thistle's shares reached 204p after it announced a 6% increase in turnover for the first 16 weeks of the current year on a like-for-like basis. Room rates were ahead by 10% on last year.
Starwood Hotel Group, which acquired ITT Sheraton last year, and Patriot American Hospitality, which took over Arcadian International in January, are tipped as the most likely bidders. Both declined to comment.
Howard Cunningham, analyst at the NatWest Group, agreed that timing for a sale is right.
He said: "For a long time [Brierley] held out for a reasonable price, and now they could realise a profit on their investment. The real estate investment trusts have mopped up what they can in the USA and have lots of money sloshing around to invest in the UK," he said.
A Thistle spokesman said there had been no formal bids yet, but an announcement could follow a strategic review within Brierley, scheduled to conclude in June.
PizzaExpress has branched out into pasta with the launch of its first Pasta di Milano outlet in London's Soho.
The restaurant, which opened last week, is the first of four in the capital. A second branch will open in Crouch End at the end of May, followed by Kensington in June and Putney in July. The restaurants have 120 seats on average and prices will be in line with those at Pizza Express.
Chairman David Page said the plan was to open more if the first restaurants proved successful. He claimed the outlets would complement Pizza Express and could operate close by without taking customers away.
"We're not doing pasta at Pizza Express and we're not doing pizza at Pasta di Milano," he said.
"If you keep it simple and don't overcomplicate the menu, you can both offer good value to the customer and make money."
INTENSE speculation that Ladbroke is about to get closer to the US-based Hilton Hotels Corporation last week sent shares soaring by 10.34%.
Last year Ladbroke, which owns the Hilton name outside the USA, formed an alliance, and a full-blown merger has since been expected. Last week 12 million shares were dealt to two undisclosed buyers.
Alpha Airports shares took flight, up 14.66% to 109.5p, following share dealings by its major shareholders.
Old rumours that Compass might fall prey to a hostile bid by Rentokil Initial resurfaced, pushing shares up 5.74%.
Greenalls shares reached 505p ahead of this week's interim results and in the wake of its £16.2m acquisition of the Slaley Hall hotel in Northumberland.
Meanwhile, the value of Thistle shares continued to improve - up 3.29% - following positive results for the year's first quarter.
