Jumeirah in China: Jumeirah Group, Dubai, on Thursday announced three new management agreements to operate luxury hotels and resorts across China, opening between 2016 and 2020.? The Jumeirah Haikou Resort is set in an exclusive golf community on a private island in Hainan; the Jumeirah Wuhan has a prime city center location near to Hankou; and Jumeirah Nanjing is set in the Hexi new business district.
Hilton in Nigeria: Transcorp Hotels, the hospitality subsidiary of Transnational Corp. of Nigeria, has signed an agreement with Hilton Worldwide to develop a 250-guestroom Hilton-branded property in Nigeria’s garden city, Port Harcourt. This marks the third partnership between the two parties and comes on the heels of Transcorp’s IPO.
Aloft in South Carolina: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide on Thursday announced its Aloft brand will debut in Columbia, South Carolina, in January 2016. Aloft Columbia Downtown will open in The Vista, the city’s recently revitalized epicenter for the arts, entertainment, shopping and dining. Owned by Lady Vista, LLC, and managed by Lexington Hospitality, the new Aloft hotel will feature 108 rooms.
HICAP awards: The winner of the Reggie Shiu Development of the Year Award at the 25th annual Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP) was the Ritz Carlton Kyoto in Japan. The winner of the Single Asset Transaction of the Year Award was the Westin Singapore, acquired by a private Japanese buyer for a reported SGD468 million (US$368 million) from BlackRock’s Asia Property Fund III. The benchmark purchase price of SGD1.5 million per key (US$1.2 million) equals the record for a Singapore hotel. And the winner of the Merger and Acquisition of the Year Award was the acquisition of Tourism Asset Holdings Ltd (TAHL). In the largest M&A transaction of the period, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) acquired 31 TAHL hotels in a deal reportedly valued at AUD745 million (US$653 million).
Accor earnings: Accor reported Friday solid third-quarter growth for total revenue of €1,459 million (US$1.9 billion), up 4.6% like-for-like pro forma and 3.3% as reported. This consolidates the positive trend observed in the first half of the year, resulting in a 3.4% like-for-like increase for the nine months to end-September. Strong demand in most of the group’s markets, particularly in the UK, Germany and Benelux, and in Europe generally, supported the growth.
Manila landmark: Oceanville Hotel and Spa Corp., the developer of the Army Navy Club in Manila, an abandoned building that was once the center of social life of the Americans in Manila in the early 20th century, on Thursday said the structure will be restored to its old grandeur and turned into a 5-star hotel similar to Raffles in Singapore.