Accor buys Fairmont and Raffles

AccorHotels has completed the acquisition of FRHI Hotels & Resorts and its three luxury brands: Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel.

Accor paid $840 million to Qatar Investment Authority and Kingdom Holding Company of Saudi Arabia, and issued those entities a total of 46.7 million Accor shares. The transaction gives Qatar Investment and Kingdom Holding (the investment vehicle of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal) equity stakes of 10.4% and 5.8% in Accor, respectively.

Ali Bouzarif and Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo from Qatar Investment and Sarmad Zok from Kingdom Holding will now join Accor’s board of directors.

Also, Accor has named Chris Cahill to a new position, CEO of luxury brands. He will lead the integration of the three acquired brands and be responsible for the strategy and global operations of all luxury brands.

Accor’s luxury brands are Raffles, Fairmont, Swissotel, Sofitel Legend, So Sofitel, Sofitel, MGallery by Sofitel and Pullman.

Cahill most recently served as executive vice president of global operations at Las Vegas Sands Corp.