Accor completes purchase of Mirvac Hotels

Accor has completed the purchase of the Mirvac Group’s hotel interests in Australia and New Zealand, giving Accor a total of 43 more hotels across Australia and New Zealand. In the first phase of integration, the Sydney Marriott Hotel was today rebranded as Pullman Sydney Hyde Park, while Sebel Newcastle Beach will be rebranded to Novotel Newcastle Beach in June. The previously Mirvac-managed Sydney Marriott Hotel will receive a $7 million refurbishment (funded by the owners, the Mirvac Wholesale Hotel Fund) to align the hotel to Pullman’s standards. The major refurbishment programme will include renovating all remaining rooms as well as significant upgrades to the hotel’s lobby and public areas. While the majority of Mirvac’s hotels will remain under their existing brands – Quay West Suites & Resorts, Sea Temple, Sebel Hotels, Resorts & Residences and Citigate Hotels – in the short term, a major priority for the integration will be to rebrand a number of the hotels under Accor’s Pullman brand. With the takeover of Mirvac’s hotels, Accor’s network in Australia and New Zealand will grow to some 250 hotels representing 32,000 rooms. The deal particularly strengthens Accor’s position in the upscale sector, building on Accor’s strong position in the mid-scale and economy sectors. “The settlement of this deal will fundamentally re-shape the hotel industry in Australia and New Zealand,” said Michael Issenberg, Chief Operating Officer for Accor Asia Pacific. “We have seen many of the original overseas players in the hotel sector retreat from this region in recent years while Accor has aggressively grown its network through management and franchise contracts and strategic acquisition deals such as the purchase of Mirvac’s hotels ... We will particularly focus on expanding our Pullman brand. The brand has achieved great traction since launching in 2007 and is now also a major player in Asia Pacific, Europe and South America. In this region, Pullman is currently represented in Sydney, Cairns and Auckland, and with the addition of the former Marriott in Sydney, and with the planned re-branding of a number of existing Mirvac hotels to Pullman, it will become a real force in the Pacific over the next two years. By 2015 it is expected that there will be over 150 Pullman hotels globally, with some 60 of them in key cities and resort areas across Asia Pacific.”