Quick start for Akkeron Hotels Akkeron Hotels, a new company set up by James Brent, a former Citigroup investment banker, is wasting no time in acquiring 150 regional hotels. Less than a week after it was launched with the takeover of Folio Hotels, I hear that it is bidding for eight hotels from the failed WG Mitchell property group. The eight hotels, including four Ramadas in East Anglia and Park Inns in Sheffield and Glasgow, are reckoned by Savills, the agent, to be worth more than £30 million. The bad news for Akkeron is that Royal Bank of Scotland, the lender to WG Mitchell, may inject the hotels into West Register, a vehicle set up to take over distressed assets that the bank has on its books.
Hats — or shirts — off to Domino’s On Thursday, Domino’s Pizza will launch its 600th store in the UK and Ireland. Twenty-four years since it opened its first store, in Luton, the company will open the doors at 166 High Holborn, Central London, with a special appearance by Stavros Flatley, the bizarre father-and-son dance act of Britain’s Got Talent fame. What are the chances of Chris Moore, the Domino’s chief executive, who is known for being a good sport, stripping off his shirt and joining in?
Rank Group continues expansion Rank Group, the gaming operator, is opening a £4.5 million G Casino in Sheffield this week, the latest incarnation of a concept that it hopes will broaden the appeal of casinos. The venue, the group’s tenth G Casino, will have a modern restaurant, a cocktail bar, live entertainment and a 100-seat poker room. Rank recently announced its intention to expand the G brand to 20 clubs by 2012.
The odds of it hitting that target are shortening.
Longbottom to join Greene King I hear that Simon Longbottom, who recently quit as managing director of Gala Coral’s gaming division, is about to pop up at Greene King, the Suffolk brewer and pub operator. The word is that he will assume a senior role just below board level.
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Take a breath of sea air. Or not MSC, the cruise company, has launched what it claims is “the world’s first sensory-branded ship”. It seems that The Splendida will offer passengers “the MSC signature fragrance” via the ship’s ventilation system. What’s wrong with all that fresh sea air?