Thistle boss denies hotels are for sale

Thistle Hotels chief executive Ian Burke last week denied the group had hotels for sale after the managing director of its parent company apparently suggested it wanted Thistle to sell hotels that were not performing well.

Burke said that Brierley Investments managing director Greg Terry had been misunderstood when he was reported as having said Thistle did not need to own more than a quarter of the hotels it managed.

Terry was reported to have said: "About 80% of our returns come from about eight hotels, when we've got 58 of them, and I don't see why we need to own more than 25% of those hotels we manage."

Burke said Terry was referring to any hotels the group might become involved with in future, not the existing group.

He added that although it was true the group's large hotels earned a large amount of Thistle's income, it was "considerably less" than 80% from the top eight.

He said: "If someone were to ask if there were circumstances in which I could envisage the sale of some of our existing hotels in future, I would say yes; but if we were going to do it, we would announce it formally, just as we did when we sold 38 hotels last year. At the moment we have no hotels up for sale."

At the weekend Sunday Business reported that Thistle may have pulled out of talks to sell its country house hotels.

It is thought it was in talks with Marston Hotels to sell Cannizaro House in south-west London, Hendon Hall in north London and New Hall in Birmingham for between £17m and £25m.

The reports have fuelled speculation that Thistle could become the target of a takeover bid.

by David Harris david.harris@rbi.co.uk

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 16-22 November 2000