Accor’s New Chief To Accelerate Predecessor’s Franchising Plan

Bloomberg:

Accor SA’s new chief executive officer plans to accelerate his predecessor’s work in reducing hotel ownership in favor of management contracts and franchises.

Europe’s largest lodging company needs to “unleash capital” by selling hotels and retaining the contracts to manage them, Denis Hennequin said in Vienna. Hennequin joins Accor from McDonald’s Corp. next month after former CEO Gilles Pelisson left because of differences with the board.

“I will succeed building on what my predecessors have done already,” Hennequin told reporters at Accor’s new Sofitel hotel in the Austrian capital. “What we need to do now is increase penetration in all markets, especially in developing markets.”