Private lifestyle hospitality firm sbe Entertainment has sold the company’s remaining 50% interest to Accor.
The deal covers brands including SLS, Delano, Mondrian, Hyde, Katsuya and Cleo.
The brands will be at the heart of a newly-created global Accor Lifestyle platform to be based in London covering 12 brands with 73 hotels and a further 110 properties under discussion in addition to more than 150 restaurants and bars.
Accor acquired the initial half share in the business in 2018.
The new lifestyle platform in partnership with UK-based hotel and hospitality firm Ennismore should achieve an earnings [ebitda] of over €100 million and “significant cost synergies” of about €15 million a year, based on the current network and pipeline.
Ennismore includes the Hoxton brand, Gleneagles in Scotland, new hotel brand Sibling, Eynsham Hall, a 50-acre country-house estate in Oxfordshire, and growing portfolio of hotel restaurants and bars.
Ennismore founder Sharan Pasricha and Gaurav Bhushan, head of the Accor Lifestyle division, will become co-chief executives of the combined entity. Accor will be the majority shareholder, with Pasricha holding a substantial minority position.
Accor’s Lifestyle operations today represent just 5% of fees and over 25% of ‘pipeline’ fees.
Growth will be accelerated, building on a strong footprint in Europe and the US, and a rapidly expanding presence in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and South America supported by Accor’s development teams.
The deal is expected to be finalised early in 2021 and is subject to the employee consultation process and regulatory approvals.
A cash and asset swap transaction with sbe entails a $300 million investment from Accor “almost entirely through the redemption of sbe’s debt”.
Sbe operates 22 hotels, with more than 40 properties in the pipeline, which has more than doubled since Accor’s initial investment, with key openings such as Mondrian London and SLS Dubai due in 2021.
Holding company Eldridge is acquiring sbe’s Hudson Hotel in New York and Delano in Miami.
Accor chairman and chief executive Sebastien Bazin said: “Lifestyle, entertainment, places with a soul have been at the heart of our development and growth strategy over the last years.
“Partnering with Ennismore’s founder Sharan and his great teams will take our lifestyle ambition to a new and exciting level.
“With this combination, we are leading the hospitality industry by creating the largest and fastest growing ecosystem of world class brands.
“Lifestyle is a sector fuelled by passionate and daring entrepreneurs, constantly pushing the boundaries of a reinvented vision of travelling the world.
“I am proud Accor has been able to join forces with many of the most creative and talented ones. This new powerful combination is set to become the engine of our exciting future growth. “