Accor Acquires 28.9% Stake in Club Mediterranee
11 Junio 2004 - 7:19AM
PR Newswire (US)
Accor Acquires 28.9% Stake in Club Mediterranee - A strategic
partnership that strengthens Accor's position in the global tourism
industry PARIS, June 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Accor has
announced that it is acquiring a 28.9% equity interest in Club
Mediterranee, including the 21.2% of shares held by Agnelli Group
(Exor/Ifil) and 7.7% held by Caisse des Depots et Consignations
(CDC). With the acquisition, Accor will become the core shareholder
in Club Mediterranee, which enjoys forefront brand identity and
expertise in the leisure segment. The transaction is subject to
approval by the monopolies and mergers commissions. The transaction
will be based on an acquisition price of 45 euros for each Club
Mediterranee share, for a total of 252 million euros, plus an
earn-out clause, representing a maximum of 41 million euros as for
the Agnelli Group and 550,000 Accor shares as for the CDC Group. It
will be financed by ORANE convertible bonds, available to every
shareholders, for a total of 280 million euros, based on one 40
euros bond per Accor share. CDC has agreed to underwrite the issue,
if necessary in full, to facilitate the transaction. Those terms
respect Accor's financial structure. By becoming Club
Mediterranee's core shareholder, with the full support of its
management, Accor will help the company to strengthen its
profitability. Accor's position as an industry leader in Europe and
a major force in global tourism will also enable Club Mediterranee
to successfully pursue its strategy of moving up-market and its
development. In creating this strategic partnership with Club
Mediterranee, Accor, which operates, out of 4,000 hotels, 200
leisure properties in 35 countries, is reaffirming its commitment
to playing a leadership role in this growing segment that is
certain to become increasingly structured. For many years, Accor's
strategy has been to offer a comprehensive range of products and
services worldwide to business and leisure customers, who often
overlap. "We are confident in the Club Mediterranee management team
and the Chairman of its Executive Board, who have already gotten
the company's turnaround off to a good start. With Henri Giscard
d'Estaing and his teams, we will quickly and realistically study
possible synergies as well as all operating and marketing
opportunities beneficial to both companies. We will also promote
cross-fertilization of experience. The closer ties offer
interesting prospects for both companies," said Jean-Marc
Espalioux, Chairman of the Accor Management Board, who emphasized
"the image of leisure hotels, for which demand will inevitably
increase, reflects favorably on all Accor hotels at a time when our
properties want to tailor their offers more closely to the changing
tastes of non-business, leisure and weekend customers." With
150,000 people in 140 countries, Accor is the European leader and
one of the world's largest groups in travel, tourism and corporate
services, with two major international activities: - hotels: nearly
4,000 hotels (455,000 rooms) in 90 countries, casinos, travel
agencies, and restaurants; - services to corporate clients and
public institutions: 14 million people in 34 countries use a broad
range of services (food vouchers, people care and services,
incentive, loyalty programs, events) engineered and managed by
Accor. Further information on Accor is available on Internet at
accor.com DATASOURCE: Accor CONTACT: Eliane Rouyer, Director,
Investor Relations of Accor, +33-1-45-38-86-26 Web site:
http://www.accor.com/
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