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.