IHG Acquires 51% Stake in Regent Hotels & Resorts
Date: March 2018
Location: Berlin, Porto Montenegro, Beijing, Taipei, Singapore and Chongqing
Name: Regent Hotels & Resorts
The Regent Hotel, Berlin
InterContinental HK, soon to revert to The Regent HK
No. of Keys: 1954
Seller: Founded in 1970 by hotelier Robert Burns as a leading luxury brand that would combine “Asian hospitality with Western elegance”, Regent has passed through the hands of various of owners in the intervening years including Four Seasons and Carlson until it was sold in 2010 to Taiwan-based Formosa International Hotels Corporation, headed up by executive chairman, Steven Pan, for US$56m.
Buyer: IHG – InterContinental Hotels Group has acquired a 51% stake in luxury brand Regent Hotels and Resorts for $39m (£28m) from Formosa.
It will have the right to acquire the remaining 49% interested in a phased manner from 2026.
Regent will now be propelled to the top of IHG’s 13 existing brands as a luxury group of hotels, higher than the well-established InterContinental Hotels & Resorts brand. IHG intends to grow Regent from the six managed hotels it has today, to more than 40 cities and resort locations around the world.
By launching this new luxury division, it suggests that further acquisitions in the sector will be on the cards.
Price: US$39m for 51%
Price per Key: US$ 39,918
THPT Comment: Little bit of irony – The InterContinental Hong Kong, which originally opened in 1980 as one of Regent’s most iconic hotels, will now be refurbished and reopen as a Regent hotel in 2021. At around US$40,000 a key, remarkably good price.
First Seen: The Caterer