The operation has been carried out in association with the two American investment funds Colony and Blackstone through a jointly set-up company of which Accor holds 30% of the capital.  The operation covers 49 Demeure and Libertel hotels (3,240 rooms) of which 8 are under management agreement.  These are essentially 3* to 4* luxury establishments.  Annual turnover is 800 millions French francs (122 million euros). 

This new hotel portfolio under Accor management comprises: 

• 41 homely, middle-of-the-range Libertel hotels.  These continue to be run under their existing name and are associated with the Mercure network.  The Libertel network should be extended with several existing Mercure hotels.
• 8 luxury Demeure hotels of which 5 are located in Paris, such as the "Astor" and "Le Parc", and 3 elsewhere in Europe, the "Grand" in Amsterdam, the "Hotel d�Angleterre" in Geneva and "47 Park Street" in London.  They made up the Sofitel Demeure Hotel network.  A few European Sofitel hotels with similar features will also bear this name.

As an investment fund, Blackstone has invested more than US$ 7 million in property assets in the United States and Europe, especially in office buildings and higher class hotels in main American cities and in London. 

Blackstone first invested in France in 1996 with the acquisition of the 77,000 square meters of the IBM Europe and IBM France head offices. 

Last year, Blackstone and Colony purchased the Savoy hotel group in London. 

Accor, whose 125,000 associates are active in 140 countries around the world, is the European leader and a global group present in travel, tourism and corporate services with two large international activities: 
- hotels and complementary businesses, including travel agencies, restaurants and casinos; 
- service vouchers with Accor Corporate Services.