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Accor takes over Century and Zenith
8th May 2003
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Accor takes full ownership of Century International Hotels and Zenith Hotels

ACCOR's Asia Pacific network now tops 200 hotels with the acquisition of Hong Kong-based Century and Zenith hotel management groups, making it the largest ever consolidation of Asian hotels into a global hotel network. The chief executives of both companies will remain with the French hotel group.

The move comes one year after Accor bought an initial 25 per cent stake of Century in May 2001, rebranding five hotels to Accor's Novotel and Ibis brands. Century, under founder Brian Deeson, has built one of the largest Asian regional networks with 16 managed properties (5,033 rooms) in six countries (China/Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam).

Since then the two companies have co-operated in integrating respective sales and marketing networks, hotel operations and human resource development. Deputy chairman Asia Pacific, Jochen Dobel, said Accor had taken a cautious approach towards integrating Century into its hotel network.

"During the first year of working together we developed the proper operational, sales and marketing and training synergies between the two groups. As a result, the time is now right for Accor to move forward and purchase the remaining controlling share of Century, and we will continue to look for opportunities to work with individual owners to re-flag hotels under an appropriate Accor brand."

Mr Dobel said that president and CEO, Brian Deeson, would remain at the helm of Century, in addition to becoming a Senior Vice President with Accor in the Asia Pacific region. Century would continue to look for new projects to bring to the group.

In a separate agreement, Accor purchased the remaining 51 per cent of shares in Zenith, following its initial 49 per cent purchase in January 2001. Currently there are six Zenith hotels (1,615 rooms) in the key Chinese cities of Dongguan, Liuyang, Hefei, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai. An additional five hotels are also presently under development, all in mainland China.

Zenith CEO, Ernst Zimmermann, will become part of Accor's senior executive management team, fine tuning the integration of remaining hotels and playing an important role for Accor in China.

"Integrating Zenith hotels in China are complimentary to our current hotel network there, and we will continue to pursue opportunities to fit their remaining hotels to Accor brands," said Dobel.

 
 
     
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