Hotel Owner September 2018 | Page 14

MONTH IN REVIEW MONTH IN REVIEW www.hotelowner.co.uk HOTEL BRANDS Indian Hotels Company to introduce Vivanta at London Heathrow Airport The Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), India’s largest hospitality company will launch its Vivanta brand with a hotel at Heathrow Airport in London in partnership with Hayre Group. The Vivanta brand from the IHCL caters to the upscale segment of business and leisure travellers.The new Vivanta hotel is a Greenfield project slated to open in 2021, conveniently located across from Terminals 1, 2 and 3 at Heathrow Airport. The hotel will have approximately 108 rooms, an all-day-diner, a bar and lounge, gym as well as banqueting and meeting space facilities. Additionally, the hotel will house the fourth outpost Bombay Brasserie. Puneet Chhatwal, managing director and chief executive officer at IHCL, said: “IHCL was the first Indian hospitality company to foray into the United Kingdom with the iconic St. James’ Court hotel in 1982. Today, we are proud to partner with Hayre Group Limited in bringing the first Vivanta branded hotel to London. “This signing is in line with our growth strategy of adding hotels in key locations globally.” Talwinder Hayre, director of Hayre Group, added: “We are delighted to partner with The Indian Hotels Company Limited in introducing the Vivanta brand to the UK market. We look forward to bringing the legendary Indian hospitality to London Heathrow, one of the busiest airports in the world.” IHCL also operates the St. James’ Court hotel, A Taj Hotel and the luxury Taj 51 Buckingham Gate Suites and Residences located next to Buckingham Palace. 14 www.hotelowner.co.uk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 APPOINTMENTS INVESTMENT Budget hotel brand Easyhotel has appointed Gary Burton as its new CFO, replacing Marc Vieilledent, who will become group development director. Burton was previously finance director of Nuffield Health, having held a variety of senior finance and treasury roles during a nine-year career with Kingfisher. Prior to that he qualified as an associate member of corporate treasurers at Hewlett Packard. As group development director Vielledent will have responsibility for leading the group’s development strategy, and will step down as from his current position as CFO in October. CEO Guy Parsons said: “I am delighted to welcome Gary as CFO. With his commercial approach and considerable international experience, Gary will make a great addition to our board. I am also delighted that Marc is taking on the role of group development director. In his new role, he will more directly impact the success of the company’s strategy. “Marc’s considerable experience in the hotel sector in Europe means he is ideally suited to drive this strand of our longer-term vision. Marc has been an outstanding CFO and we are very grateful for his significant contribution to the group in that role to date.” Hotel real estate investment in Europe reached €21bn (£18bn) in the 12 months to Q2 2018, representing a 5.8% increase in transaction volumes year-on-year. According to the latest data from global real estate advisor CBRE, total investment volumes of all real estate sectors in Europe saw an increase of 4% on the same period last year, driven by “robust growth and continued investor demand”. UK hotel investment volumes accounted for €8.2bn (£7.3bn), reflecting a 95.1% increase year- on-year, and a notable recent deal included the Project Ribbon pan-UK portfolio of mainly Holiday Inn hotels, which sold for £742m in May. Germany was Europe’s second largest hotel investment market in the first half of 2018, with investment volume increasing by 5.8% year-on-year, reflecting an increase in market liquidity. Olivia Kaussen, CBRE Germany, said: “Germany continues to be a key country market for hotel investment, attracting an increasing amount of foreign capital. In the first half of 2018 German hotel transaction volumes reached €1.9bn (£1.6bn) and this was attributed to a number of large single asset transactions.” Easyhotel announces board member shake up European hotel investment reaches €21bn in Q2 2018 QUOTE OF THE MONTH “We are providing every support to all affected staff and very much hope that a sale can be secured to allow this iconic building to continue to operate as a hotel.” That’s what Raj Mittala, partner at specialist business advisory firm FRP Advisory, said about the closure of the Feathers Inn hotel over a Legionnaires’ outbreak in 2017 which caused the death of a guest. September 2018