Business World |

Accor is ahead of schedule of asset sales. On Monday, the hotel group announced the sale of the walls of 48 hotels for 367 million euros. The real estate transaction, Accor calls "major in Europe, which should be finalized by the end of 2010, includes 31 hotels in France, 10 in Belgium and 7 in Germany, for a total 6,300 rooms. It concerns 28 Etap hotels, 13 Ibis, Novotel and a SuiteNovotel 6.

These hotels will continue to be managed by the group under the same signs – there are 28 Etap Hotel, 13 Ibis, Novotel and SuiteNovotel 6 – under a variable lease for a period of 12 years renewable 6 times Accor's initiative, or 84 years total. The average rent will be equal to 19% of turnover.On the basis of turnover in 2009, the rent would amount to 22.4 million euros according to Accor.

Under the lease, the new owner will assume responsibility for structural maintenance investments in hotels, insurance costs and property taxes.

The deal includes a renewal program of 47.6 million euros, 33 million euros financed by the acquirer, thus enabling Accor to accelerate the deployment of new generations of rooms Etap and Ibis in a forty establishments.

Chief objective of reducing debt exceeded

This operation, carried out for 80% of the amount from the insurer Predica (a subsidiary of Crédit Agricole) and the balance at the corporation Walls Land (Land subsidiary of Regions), will have a positive aimpact 282 million euros 2010 net debt of the hotel group and three million euros per year on its profit before tax.

The group had announced in May a program to dispose of hotel assets amounting to 2 billion euros over the period 2010-2013. He then indicated that such transactions were to reduce its debt of around 450 million euros in 2010 alone and more than half of that amount had already been the subject of transfer agreements.

With 282 million euros announced today, Accor therefore exceeds its annual target of reducing debt.

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