AccorHotels, the parent company of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, has partnered with Qatar firm Katara to set up Kasada Africa Hospitality fund worth $1 billion which will see the development of several hotels in key African cities.
The hotels will be constructed mainly in East Africa, Southern Africa and the Anglophone part of West Africa in the next five to 7 years, Marc Willis, AccorHotels CEO, Middle East & Africa has confirmed.
The investment fund, which is at its inception stage will amount to $500 million in equity. Katara hospitality and Accor hotels will contribute approximately $350, million and $150 million respectively over the period.
It is expected to accelerate dynamic growth trajectory as it will target greenfield projects, brownfield projects and conversion of existing hotels through acquisition.
Another key partnership for AccorHotels is with the Community Conservation Fund Africa which is an NGO committed to preventing the decline of Africa’s wildlife; it brings together three international renowned organizations-Wilderness Foundation, Tusk trust and African parks.
During a press briefing held at Movenpick, Yigit Sezgin, the Chief Commercial Officer also highlighted Accor loyalty program dubbed Accor Live Limitless which allow clients to earn and redeem points across all the hotel brands, food and beverage outlets and co-working space from a single platform.
“Greater membership also drives down our customer acquisition cost, since members are more loyal to us than non-members and allow us to communicate with our guests on a more intimate level,” Mr Sezgin noted.
While outlining the group’s strategy for Africa, Marc Descrozaille, the Chief Operating Officer talked about the joint ventures saying the asset-light ownership model allows the group to work alongside impressive, entrepreneur hoteliers adding that it gives the group adequate support network.
“We prefer joint ventures over acquisition with these founder driven brands because it keeps their unique expertise at the helm.Every hospitality brand faces the risk of obsolescence but working with such lively,enterprenuel brands keeps our portfolio vibrant and fresh,” Mr Descrozaille said.
Currently, Accor operates 114 hotels in Africa including 43 in sub-Sahara Africa across 15 countries,
