According to market rumors, the hotel group led by Sébastien Bazin would have expected to make a major announcement tomorrow. This could be a very big acquisition like that of the American Starwood.
Accor has again received a favorable rating of UBS this morning, which raised € 5 its target price to 57.75 euros. The bank points out that in a difficult environment in the first quarter, the group managed to increase the average revenue per customer by 4% in France, on a comparable basis. Moreover, the income of the Hotelinvest division were up 5% and those of HotelServices 8%, while the group announced the opening of more than 7,000 rooms. The group also intends to accelerate the restructuring of its hotels, to 100 hotels in the year, and take advantage of low financing costs to improve margins. UBS therefore capitalize on these good performances for applying a multiple of 10 times the EBITDAR (against 9.5 times previously) for Hotelinvest and 12.5 times (against 11.5 times) for HotelServices and thus raise its price per share .
This note only confirms investors' appetite for the title Accor, which thanks to the strategy instilled by Sébastien Bazin and walking restructuring, gained 66% since its low point last October. But the market is abuzz now rumors about a big operation that Accor may announce tomorrow.
Now, among the hotel assets that would be sold face a major US group Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. The latter said in late April that it had commissioned Lazard "to explore strategic and financial alternatives and increase shareholder value", giving rise to speculation about a future sale. Rumors had actually started in February, when the CEO Frits van Paasschen had to resign due to the weak growth of the group. He was replaced by an interim boss.
Starwood is a nugget of upscale hotels, which under its brands Sheraton, W Hotels, Le Meridien and Westin, managed to develop large scale internationally. It thus has more than 350 000 rooms, of which nearly half are located outside the United States. Above all, the group is at the forefront in the field of digital account Accor develop niche with a plan of 225 million euros over five years announced last fall. A marriage with the American juggernaut would have much sense for three reasons: the high-end, where French only generates 15.2% of its revenues, geographically as North America, Latin America and the Caribbean do only 10% of its fleet, and digital.
Certainly, such a transaction would not be trivial. Starwood weighs 14.1 billion market capitalization, against 11.6 billion euros for Accor (nearly 13 billion). But it has serious means: the group that bears little net debt of 159 million euros and has € 4.3 billion of cash at the end of 2014. He also every latitude to take advantage of an optimal financing market. Last summer, he had issued EUR 900 million of perpetual hybrid bonds at a record rate of 4.125%, and may even get more favorable terms, since the launch of quantitative easing by the ECB in early . Besides the possibility of a payment in shares, thanks to the very good performance of course.
Finally, the group is still owned nearly 11% by Colony CapitalEurazeo concert, which was reduced by almost 10% in March and is currently in an exit strategy. A major operation would be the best opportunity to exit at term and very good account of the asset, which they hold shares for ten years now