Macdonald will manage Arcadian
Macdonald Hotels has clinched the deal to run the 11 Arcadian hotels bought by financier Guy Hands two weeks ago.
The company said today it had entered into a 10-year management contract for the properties. This brings the number of hotels managed by Macdonald from 28 to 39.
Macdonald has bought 10% of the share capital of Hands's company, Hand Picked Hotels, and has also put up £1.9m in cash for loan stock.
At the same time it has issued 1,408,451 new ordinary shares, representing 2.3% of its enlarged share capital, to Julia Hands.
Each company will be represented on the other's board from January 2000.
Ramón Pajares, non-executive chairman of Hand Picked, will be joining the Macdonald board as non-executive director. And Sandy Orr, non-executive director of Macdonald, will join Hand Picked as non-executive director.
Wyndham International (formerly Patriot American Hospitality), which owned Arcadian, today officially confirmed the sale. The price was about $120m (£75m), it said.
"The proceeds from the sale of these assets will enable us to seek properties that can better serve our key markets," said chairman and chief executive James D Carreker.
Wyndham still has the 267-bedroom Great Eastern hotel, a joint venture with Conran Holdings in the City of London, set to open in January. It also retains the Malmaison chain of five boutique hotels in the UK.
