AccorHotels today completed the €4.6 billion sale of 57.8% in investment arm AccorInvest.
The value of the sale is slightly more than the €4.4 billion announced in February and in line with the higher percentage of capital finally sold.
AccorHotels will hold 42.2% of the capital of AccorInvest, with the remainder acquired by sovereign wealth funds Public Investment Fund and GIC, institutional investors Colony NorthStar, Crédit Agricole Assurances, Amundi and other private investors.
The two businesses will maintain a close, long-standing relationship through very long-term partnership agreements.
AccorHotels chief executive Sebastien Bazin said: “By completing the sale of close to 58% of the capital of AccorInvest, we have successfully finalised the transformation process begun five years ago.
“The deal enables us to further accelerate the development of AccorHotels by focusing our resources and energy on strengthening our brand portfolio and our leadership position in key markets, and on pursuing our strategy of delivering innovation and excellence to our guests and hotel owner partners.
“With our new, primarily asset-light structure, we will be able to deploy our ambitious and disruptive vision of ‘augmented hospitality’ to the full.”
AccorInvest chief executive John Ozinga added: “Today is the start of a new chapter for AccorInvest.
“With greater resources and fully engaged teams, we are now going to speed up the consolidation of our portfolio, the renovation and repositioning of our assets, and the development of new projects.
“Drawing on the strength of AccorHotels’ brands, we intend to cement our position as the leading hotel investor in Europe by enhancing the attractiveness and value of our hotel portfolio.”