Saudi Arabia buys 49% of Rocco Forte’s luxury hotel chain

Saudi Arabia buys 49% of Rocco Forte’s luxury hotel chain

Saudi Arabia’s $700bn Public Investment Fund is buying a 49 per cent stake in Sir Rocco Forte’s luxury hotel group and planning to double the chain’s size over the next five years with new hotels in the Middle East, Italy and the US.

The deal, announced on Monday, values Forte’s group of 14 hotels across Europe at £1.2bn and implies an enterprise value, including debt, of £1.4bn, according to people familiar with the details. As part of the deal, Italian sovereign wealth fund CDP Equity, which owned a 23 per cent stake, will exit the business, along with four of Forte’s five sisters.

Forte, alongside his sister Olga Polizzi, will retain a controlling 51 per cent stake. The PIF will also invest tens of millions of pounds in the group to double the size of its hotel portfolio over the next five years.

In an interview with the Financial Times in Brown’s Hotel in London’s Mayfair, Forte, who chairs the group, said he was “very bullish” about demand from US travellers, which account for more than a third of turnover, and that he expected “a lot more business” from visitors based in the Middle East thanks to the partnership with Saudi Arabia.

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