Starboard Hotels Acquires Four ibis Styles Properties from Carillion

Date: March 2018

Location: Barnsley, Birmingham NEC, Crewe and Haydock, UK

Name: ibis Styles, one of the 28 brands within Accor!

No. of Keys: 497

Seller: The shares in the hotel owning companies were purchased from Carillion after being brought to the market by Knight Frank over a year ago for offers in excess of £30 million and purchased by Starboard for an undisclosed sum.

Carillion started trying to sell off assets last summer (2017) in a bid to rescue the company after it revealed £845 million losses on construction work.

The four hotels were developed by New World Leisure and Alfred McAlpine under a Ramada Encore brand, part of Wyndham Hotel Group.

Kew Green Hotels was appointed to manage the hotels in 2014 and undertook the rebranding exercise on behalf of the owner.

Buyer: Starboard, this increases the company portfolio to 19 hotels with nearly 2000 rooms under brands including Accor, IHG, Wyndham and Best Western, as well as their own brand Windermere Manor Hotel in the Lake District.

Senior debt for the acquisition was provided by Bank Leumi.

ibis Styles is a new-ish brand to Accor denoting a step above their Ibis brand…they say “its about creativity, good humour and fun”.

Each hotel is decorated around a theme. Alice in Wonderland, a farm in the middle of Paris, a journey through the history of aviation… you name it, and there is an ibis styles built around it.

For example the theme at Birmingham NEC took inspiration from Birmingham’s role as a major transport hub such as Spaghetti Junction being re-imagined as a yellow design on the carpets.

Vintage prints of Birmingham’s industrial history also adorn the walls and the bar is styled in the shape of an aeroplane wing.

THPT Comment: He who is bold enough to act fast, wins! Carillion went into liquidation in mid-January 2018, buy actually Starboard had been negotiating this deal for some time.

 

First Seen: Hospitality & Catering News