Starwood Hotels To Boost European Portfolio By 40%

(RTTNews) - Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (HOT) said Tuesday that it plans to open more than 60 new hotels and resorts across Europe by 2020, boosting its current European hotel portfolio by about 40 percent. The company added that with deal-signing back to pre-crisis levels in Europe, it is focused on meaningful growth and portfolio enhancements across all nine brands.

Starwood said it will open nine new hotels in Europe in 2014, primarily in fast-growing markets such as Turkey, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States or CIS. The company added that it has signed a deal to open Sheraton Istanbul Atasehir Hotel, its seventh Sheraton hotel in Turkey.

Simon Turner, President of Global Development for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, said, "The surge in infrastructure development in markets such as Turkey and Russia and the success of our mid-market brands across the continent have created favorable conditions for the expansion of all of our brands across Europe over the next several years."

Starwood will open an additional four properties in Turkey, including The St. Regis Istanbul later this year, followed by Four Points by Sheraton Istanbul and two new Sheraton hotels in Samsun as well as Istanbul. The company intends to triple its portfolio in Russia and the CIS countries over the next three years, with 12 new hotels.

In 2013, Starwood signed 12 new hotel management and franchise agreements in Europe, with the pace back to pre-crisis levels. The company opened seven hotels in Europe last year, adding about 1,200 rooms in five countries while expanding its footprint across the continent with 80 percent of growth in developing markets.

In the mid-market brands, Starwood has twelve hotels currently under development, which will double the mid-market portfolio by 2016. The company plans to open three new mid-market hotels in Germany, including the European debut of the Element brand at Frankfurt Airport.

Starwood is in advanced talks on more than a dozen new mid-market hotel deals across the continent and is particularly focused on growing these brands with multi-unit owner partners under franchise hotel contracts in markets such as Germany, Scandinavia and the UK.

In the luxury brands, Starwood currently operates nearly 50 hotels under the St. Regis, W Hotels and Luxury Collection brands.

The company has five new luxury hotels under development in Europe, including W Hotels in Amsterdam, Milan and Tel Aviv, The St. Regis Istanbul and the addition of Hotel Bristol, a Luxury Collection Hotel in Odessa, Ukraine. Starwood is in advanced talks for five additional luxury hotels on the continent.

HOT closed Monday's trading at $80.72, down $1.74 or 2.11 percent on a volume of 1.91 million shares.