LONRHO Africa has put its city and resort properties in Kenya, Mozambique and Ghana up for sale after deciding to move out of the hotel business.
The company, formerly known as Lonrho when it owned the Princess Hotels and Resorts and the Metropole Hotels, is selling its remaining properties so it can concentrate its efforts on its core business of mining.
The properties, which City analysts have valued at £36.6m, are a mix of city hotels and game lodges.
The urban portfolio consists of the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, the Hotel Cardosa in Maputo, Mozambique and Labadi Beach in Accra, Ghana.
The four Kenyan tourist lodges up for sale are Mount Kenya Safari Club, Aberdare Country Club – which hit the headlines after it became the site of a tourist stabbing – The Ark and Mara Safari Club.
A spokesman for the company said: “We are selling off the hotels because the company wants to concentrate on its mining side and also its car and truck franchises. The hotel side of the business has always had a limited strategic fit.”
In 1996 Lonrho sold off Metropole to Stakis Hotels for £327m and two years later Canadian Pacific stepped in to buy Princess Hotels and Resorts for £330m. Since then, the company has divided up the remains of its hotel division, which left the group with its properties Africa prompting it to be renamed Lonrho Africa.