IHI prepares for £700m stock market flotation

International Hotel Investments (IHI), the parent company of the new luxury Corinthia Hotel & Residences currently being developed overlooking Trafalgar Square, is preparing for a £700m flotation on the London stock market.

The company, which is already listed in Malta, is seeking finances to fund new properties. As well as the £270m development of the London hotel, new properties managed under the company’s Corinthia brand are currently also under construction in Libya, Hungary and Egypt.

Due to open later this year, the 300-bedroom Corinthia Hotel & Residences is being developed after IHI, together with two of its principal shareholders, Libyan Foreign Investment Company and Nakheel Hotel of Dubai, purchased the former Ministry of Defence building straddling Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall Place and the adjoining 10 Whitehall Place from the Crown Estate.

The property originally opened as the luxury Metropole Hotel in 1886 and was briefly taken over by the Government during World War One. A hotel reopened on the site between the two world wars before becoming a Government building again in 1936.

Enjoying panoramic views over Trafalgar Square, the River Thames and Whitehall, the Corinthia Hotel & Residences claims it will offer some of the largest hotel bedrooms in London with the average room measuring 45 square metres. It will also have 12 luxury apartments.

There will be two restaurants – one with a British theme and the second, an Italian seafood restaurant called Massimo run by chef Massimo Riccioli, who currently owns two restaurants in Rome. A four storey spa, measuring 2,500 square metres, is to be run by ESPA.

General manager of the hotel is Matthew Dixon who was previously general manager of The Grove in Hertfordshire.

Hotel developer pays £130m for central London site >>

Corinthia to open £270m flagship hotel in London >>

Corinthia to open first hotel in Liverpool >>

By Janet Harmer

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