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By Kent Larsen
Marriott in Auction Battle to Acquire Hotel Group
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- Marriott Corp. is one of the bidders
seeking to buy the Forte Hotels group in an auction expected to be
the world's biggest. The third round of the auction will continue
this week, and is expected to be completed in March. Marriott,
founded and run by the Marriott family, members of the LDS Church, is
looking at the chain of hotels to make a major expansion outside of
the US.
Currently Marriott has more than 2,000 hotels in the US, but only 58
outside of the US. This purchase would include 146 luxury 4 and 5
star Le Meridien hotels, as well as 129 other hotels in the UK. If
successful, the UK hotels would go to Marriott's UK partner,
Whitbread, which already manages the Marriott hotels in the UK.
But Marriott is facing stiff competition in the bidding from
London-based Bass, the world's second largest hotel group, best known
as the current owner of the Crown Plaza and Holiday Inn brands. Bass
is flush with cash and has almost no debt after the sale last year of
its Belgian brewing business, leaving it in a good financial position
to make a successful bid. The sale would make Bass the world's
largest hotel group, more than 50% larger than Marriott.
The sale is expected to fetch $5.14 billion. The round of bidding
this week will narrow the bidders to three, with a final round to be
concluded in March.
Sources:
Partner for Bass in $9bn Forte bid
Melbourne Australia The Australian 20Jan01 B4
By Teresa Ooi
Marriott, Bass vie to book up Compass hotels-sources
Excite News (Reuters) 16Jan01 B4
By David Jones and Arindam Nag
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