After HotelDesigns recently reported the sale of the Regent chain by Rezidor, it has been revealed that the Rezidor group has now bought the biggest hotel chain in the Baltics. Rezidor bought ten Reval Hotels in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Russia in an agreement with the Norwegian real estate developer Linstow. Rezidor has plans to turn six of the hotels into a Radisson Blu brand and four of them into a Park Inn.
After the recent sale of the Regent brand, Rezidor, CEO, Kurt Ritter was quoted as saying: “In addition to the positive impact on annual cash flow and net profit, this deal will also free up resources to improve our operations and accelerate the expansion of Rezidor\’s core brands.\”
The sale of the Regent chain was a joint sale with Carlson Hotels to Formosa International Hotels Corporation. The transaction included the brand and all the hotel management and lease contracts. Although the price of the sale was not announced, it was thought that Rezidor’s share amounted to about €9.5m.
Some of these funds were perhaps put towards the purchase of the Reval hotel chain. The sale of the Baltic brand is expected to be complete on June 1 and is expected to increase the number of rooms owned by Rezidor by 2,367.
Ritter said the purchase of the Reval hotel chain will give Rezidor a strong presence in the Baltic area: “This portfolio agreement gives Rezidor, which is the number one among the international hotel operators in Russia, a strong market position in the Baltics, too. We will be able to substantially strengthen our position in the key markets of Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius, where we already are present with our upper upscale brand Radisson Blu and a total of 760 rooms.”
Carmen Allan
