Accor has sealed a deal to buy Mexican chain Grupo Posadas, another step in its Latin American expansion.
The $275m purchase includes 15 hotels in key city locations, totalling 2,600 rooms. Eleven of these are in Brazil. There is also a pipeline of another 14 properties with 2,000 rooms run under management contracts. Accor said the deal would help consolidate its lead in the region, particularly in Brazil, where it now operates 164 properties with 26,000 rooms.
The deal is the latest part of a massive leap in Accor’s number of rooms, with the addition of 141 hotels in the first six months of 2012.
The new properties brough an extra 20,700 rooms into the Accor portfolio, whose 14 brands include Sofitel, Novotel, Etap and Ibis. More than half the new rooms were in the Asia/Pacific region, with another 25% in Europe. Of these, 85% were under franchise or management contract agreements.
Accor disposed of its budget US brand Motel 6 during the second quarter. This was sold to venture capitalists Blackstone for $1.9 billion.
The additions to the portfolio have yet to have an effect on Accor’s bottom line. It saw a modest 3.6% (€37m) jump in revenue in the first half of the year to €2.717 billion.
Accor said growth was robust in emerging markets and “stable” in Europe. However, it said southern Europe remained “very challenging”.