PARIS — AccorHotels appointed a new 16-member Board of Directors and finalized its acquisition of FRHI Holdings Limited (FRHI) during the company’s general meeting held today. Shareholders representing 73.13 per cent of the total group approved the resolution, finalizing the acquisition of FRHI and the corresponding share capital increase reserved for the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), as well as their representation on the Board of Directors.
The shareholders also approved the appointment of six new directors: Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo and Ali Bouzarif, proposed by Qatar Investment Authority; Sarmad Zok, proposed by Kingdom Holding Company; and Jiang Qiong Er, Isabelle Simon and Natacha Valla as independent directors. A new employee representative director will be appointed by the Group’s European Work Council within the next few weeks, in accordance with the company’s bylaws.
“The 6 new Board members who have been appointed by our shareholders today are bringing tremendous diversity and experience to AccorHotels’ Board,” says Sébastien Bazin, chairman and CEO of AccorHotels. “I am convinced their complementary backgrounds and views will be of great support to continue developing our growth and innovation strategy in the future.”
The changes in the Group’s shareholder structure and in the composition of its Board of Directors are governed by individual shareholder agreements between Accor and each of QIA and KHC setting out the principles and objectives of their individual shareholdings.
“The acquisition of FRHI that we have just finalized proves the agility of the group in a hospitality sector undergoing great change and reinforces our service offering for our clients and partners,” says Bazin. “It also enables AccorHotels to consolidate its shareholder base, with two renowned investors that are great specialists of the global hotel sector becoming new shareholders. With the support of QIA and KHC as well as the active involvement of their representatives in the work of the Board of Directors, we are ideally placed to keep on implementing our ambitious and value-creating strategy.”
