(AOF) – Accor has announced the evolution of its organization around two distinct business lines. The “Economy, Midscale & Premium” division notably includes the brands ibis, Novotel, Mercure, Swissôtel, Mövenpick and Pullman, and relies on 4 major regions. The “Luxury & Lifestyle” division brings together brands from these universes and is organized around 4 brand collections: Raffles & Orient Express, Fairmont, Sofitel & MGallery and Ennismore.
The first division includes 4,816 hotels worldwide and 948 new establishments under development. The second includes 488 hotels around the world and 266 new establishments under development.
The hotel group intends to rely “on two divisions with distinct and differentiated expertise with the ambition of further strengthening the excellence of each of these business lines, improving their operational and financial performance, offering its owners and its customers ever more relevant products and services and to attract the best talent”.
In order to support the implementation and ensure the deployment of this new organization, the Board of Directors of Accor has unanimously decided to propose the renewal of the mandate of Sébastien Bazin, current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Group at the next General Meeting. annual report of the Group, ruling on the financial statements for the 2022 financial year.
AOF – LEARN MORE
Key points
– World’s leading hotel operator, created in 1967, with more than 40% of the market (excluding France, 1/3 of the market), leader in Asia-Pacific, Middle East-Africa and Latin America;
– Hotel portfolio of 5,300 hotels, i.e. 769,000 rooms in 100 countries, from luxury for 26% of revenues under the brands Fairmont, Pullman, Raffles, Sofitel, etc. to mid-range (34%) and economy Adagio, Ibis, Mercure , Novotel…;
– Activity of €2.2 billion balanced worldwide and divided into two major divisions, HotelServices for hotels owned by franchise or by management (72%) and HotelAssets for those owned as well as diversification in concierge services, rental of luxury residences or digital services for hoteliers, etc.;
– Economic model based on the reduction of capital requirements by “asset light” – sale of buildings and management control, by building loyalty and optimizing the model;
– Capital characterized by the presence of the Chinese hotel operators Jin Jiang and Huazhu (13% and 6.2% each), the Qatari fund QiA (11.3%) and the English Kingdom Hotels (9.21%), the founders retaining 1.43% of the capital, with a 12-member board of directors chaired by managing director Sébastien Bazin;
– Controlled financial structure with €4 billion in cash compared to €1.8 billion in net debt.
Challenges
– RESET strategy of recurring cost savings -200 M€ per year;
– Innovation strategy in the service of augmented hospitality ALL-Accor Live Limitless with a single platform concentrating the group’s offers, exploiting personal and commercial data to build customer loyalty;
– “Planet 21” environmental strategy: reduction in energy consumption, carbon action plan for a quarter of AccorInvest hotels, towards the elimination of single-use plastics, audit of 1/3 of suppliers, launch of the 1
er
“green loan”
– Benefits of the strategic partnership with the Chinese Huazhu Hotels Group, aimed at strengthening the Ibis, Mercure and Novotel brands in China, Taiwan and Mongolia;
– Pipeline increased to 1220 hotels;
– Acceleration of diversification in “lifestyle”, with the acquisition of 66.7% of Ennismore, financed by Accor Acquisition Cy.
Challenges
– Continuation of the rise in RevPar (indicator of hotel activity), still down by 49% in 2021 vs 2019, i.e. 42.3%, the return to pre-crisis levels being expected for 2024;
– Strong exposure to Europe which contributes nearly 40% of operating profit;
– 2022 objectives: acceleration of the return to profitability initiated in 2021 and restoration of the pre-Covid credit profile;
– Absence of dividend, its service being subject to the return to positive free self-financing.
Out of the crisis for the cruise
The recovery is tangible in Europe. MSC Cruises, the leading European company, resumed operation of its entire fleet in June, i.e. 19 cruise ships – including 14 in the Mediterranean. Similarly, the Costa group, a subsidiary of the American cruise giant Carnival, should operate all of its liners (24 in number) by the end of the year. On the other hand, China remains on the sidelines of the general movement, due to its extremely restrictive health policy. The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) expects the industry to return to its 2019 record traffic of a total of 32 million cruise passengers by the end of 2023.