The French hotel giant Accor will sell its 30.56% stake in the company Essendi to a consortium formed by the American investment funds Blackstone and the European Colony IM, for an amount of up to 975 million euros, Accor and Blackstone announced on Wednesday.
The memorandum of understanding signed on Wednesday by these two companies provides for “the sale of the entire stake” of Accor for an amount “of up to 975 million euros, including 675 million euros to be received on the date of completion of the transaction and an earn-out of up to 300 million euros”, they specify in a press release.
This protocol also includes the “progressive conversion of the portfolio” of Essendi, ex-AccorInvest, the former real estate division of Accor which notably holds the properties and funds of the F1 hotels, “into hotels under franchise contract”, in accordance with Accor’s “strategy” of simplifying and further strengthening the solidity and predictability of its business model”.
“All of the hotels in the portfolio would remain under Accor brands and the new franchise contracts would have maturities extended to 20 years,” it added.
The transaction could take place “during the third quarter of 2026 subject to the finalization of the shareholders’ agreement between Blackstone and the other shareholders” of Essendi “and the usual regulatory and competition authorizations”.
Accor will then return to shareholders “most of the proceeds from the sale in the form of an additional share buyback program amounting to 500 million euros”, according to the press release.
The world’s sixth largest hotel group, which owns brands such as Ibis, Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Pullman, also announces “to immediately launch a first tranche of 225 million euros of the share buyback program for the 2026 financial year” announced last month, of 450 million euros.
Accor generated almost stable turnover in 2025 (+0.6%) at 5.64 billion euros, but excluding negative exchange rate effects (mainly Australian, American and Canadian dollars), it shows an increase of 4.5%.
Last year, the group launched the process of selling AccorInvest, renamed Essendi in April 2025.
Accor spun off its AccorInvest property company in 2017 with a view to ceding control in order to become a pure hotel operator. In mid-2018, the group sold 65% of this division for 4.8 billion euros, committing to retain 30% until May 2023.
But Covid-19 happened there, seriously weakening the results of the real estate company, forced into a vast plan to cut jobs and take out a loan guaranteed by the state and Accor kept its 30% longer than expected.
