IHG sells hotel in Montreal and other international hotel news

IHG sells hotel in Montreal
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has sold the 357-room InterContinental Montreal in Canada to Swedish company Pandox AB for CAN$49m (£23m). IHG will continue to manage the hotel under a 30-year management contract and Pandox will invest a further CAN$11m (£5m) to renovate the hotel. The sale is inline with IHG's strategy of growing its management and franchise businesses and reducing asset ownership. Since 2003, IHG has disposed of 178 hotels globally with a net asset value of over £2.9b.

Marriott Hotel chef named Singapore's Chef of the Year Kelvin Kek, head chef at the Singapore Marriott Hotel, has been named Singapore Chef of the Year beating 14 other chefs from a number hotels and restaurants in the country. His winning dish of king prawns with potato cake served with cod and dry scallop wanton was praised by judges for truly representing Singapore. Kek said: The City Gas Singapore Chef Awards 2007 coincided with the ongoing Singapore Food Festival.

KHI buys two Raffles hotels in Cambodia Kingdom Hotel Investments (KHI) has bought two Raffles hotels in the south Asian country of Cambodia for approximately US$35m (£17.5m). The two properties comprise the 170-room Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh and the 125-room Raffles Grand Hotel Angkor in Siem Reap. The Raffles Hotel Le Royal opened in 1929 and is located in the heart of Phnom Penh, the commercial, political and cultural hub of Cambodia. The French-colonial style hotel is situated on 18,000sq m of land and offers access to the international airport and city attractions such as the Royal Palace and National Museum. The Raffles Grand Hotel opened in 1932 and is located in 60,000sq m of landscaped grounds, eight km from the world heritage site of the temples of Angkor Wat. The deal increases KHI's Asian portfolio to eight properties in six countries.

Accor gains approval for joint venture with Pierre & Vacances The European Commission has approved the creation of a joint venture between French hotel group Accor and its compatriot, the tour operator, Pierre & Vacances. Pierre & Vacances operates self-catering holidays in a number of markets in Europe and together with Accor will run a joint venture covering urban residences in Europe. The European Commission decided that the combined market share of the two companies in urban residences and the presence of a number of competitors meant that there was no reason to stop Accor and Pierre & Vacances working together. The joint venture will manage 14 current residences, with eight under construction at the moment, six of which will be branded Pierre & Vacances and two under the Accor name. Accor has said that it hopes to have 50 sites, which contain some 6,500 apartments in total, at the end of five years.

By Kerstin Kühn

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