Ettington Park finds buyer after four years

IN April 1990 Ettington Park, the Grade I-listed Warwickshire country house hotel, was put up for sale for £10m. Four recession-hit years later it is to be sold in a deal valuing the 48-bedroom property at £4.15m.

The buyer is Arcadian International, whose chief executive, Robert Breare, used to run the now defunct Select Country Hotels group when it operated Ettington Park in the late 1980s.

Arcadian is paying £2.75m in cash and assuming some debt to buy out the shareholders - mainly the hotel's original Business Expansion Scheme investors and the receivers of Select Hotels.

The dramatic Gothic-style building was converted to a country house hotel in 1983 and has a restaurant, function suites and a leisure centre with swimming pool, saunas, a solarium, tennis courts and riding stables.

In the year to 31 March 1993, it reported a pre-tax profit of £94,000 and operating profits of £252,000 on turnover of £1.94m. Current profits before interest, depreciation and tax are about £450,000-£500,000.

Mr Breare said he intended to retain all staff on existing employment rights, with Rebecca Kennedy staying on as director and general manager.

The acquisition is the first for Arcadian since it bought the Clipper Hotels group and two former Hidden hotels last November, when it raised £18.6m from its shareholders through a rights issue.

Further acquisitions are said to be close, although Mr Breare said he was concentrating on a £3m refurbishment of eight of its hotels, which would include the expansion of existing facilities.

Meanwhile, he is also trying to sell two of the former Clipper hotels.