Le Méridien to shed six hotels for £40m

Hotel group Le Méridien is selling six former Principal hotels for about £40m.

Tony Troy, regional managing director of Le Méridien UK and Ireland, said the hotels were being sold as they did not fit with the Le Méridien brand.

The hotels for sale are: Norbreck Castle in Blackpool, Lancashire; the Queen hotel in Chester; Manor House hotel in Moretonhampstead, Devon; Keswick hotel in Keswick, Cumbria, North Stafford hotel in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and the Golf hotel in Lincoln. Together they have 779 bedrooms and employ 701 full- and part-time staff.

Le Méridien has appointed Stephen Richardson and Nick Barber of ATIS Real Weatheralls to manage the sale.

Nomura bought Principal Hotels for £255m in January 2001. Four months later it bought the Le Méridien chain from Compass for £1.9b, a deal which marked the end of Compass's sale of its Forte hotels division. Following the completion of the sale, Le Méridien will operate 17 properties in the UK and Ireland.