Far East
Starwood's 23rd in China
US-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts has signed an agreement to manage the 348-bedroom Sheraton Xiamen hotel in China. The newly built hotel will open in June next year, and will be the city's first five-star hotel. The opening of the property will increase Starwood's portfolio in China to 23. The hotel is part of a multipurpose complex, and will also feature 10,000sq ft of conference space, four restaurants, a health club and spa, an indoor pool and shopping centre.
Europe
Feeding the pilgrims
Contract caterer Sodexho has been selected to provide food services for hundreds of thousands of youngsters expected to converge on Cologne for the World Youth Day festival in August next year. Pope John Paul has invited young people to descend on the German city by way of a pilgrimage to celebrate their faith. Sodexho, which provided catering services at the event in 1997 and 2000, will provide 500 mobile restaurants and more than 1,000 staff to feed the pilgrims.
Going Swiss in Moscow
Raffles International will open its first hotel in Russia next year. The group has signed an agreement with JSC Moskva Kasnye Holmy to manage a 235-bedroom hotel under its Swiss“tel name. The Swiss“tel Riverside Towers in Moscow is scheduled to open by next May. The hotel is currently under construction, but when complete the 34-storey building will be one of the tallest in Moscow.
USA
Strategic raises £135m
Hotel owner Strategic Hotel Capital has raised $246m (£135m) by floating on the New York Stock Exchange. The firm, which is run by Laurence Gellar, owns 14 luxury hotels with more than 5,000 bedrooms in North America and Europe. The company is not the only hotel group to have launched on the stock exchange in the USA this year. CNL Hospitality, which owns 137 hotels in North America, orchestrated a $700m (£383m) flotation earlier this year.