Thistle Hotels
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Hospitality |
| Founded | 1965 |
| Headquarters | Uxbridge, England, UK |
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Area served
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United Kingdom |
|
Key people
|
Tim Scoble CEO Quek Leng Chan Chairman Steve Bailey CFO |
| Revenue | £287m (2004) |
| Parent | Guoman Hotel Management (UK) Limited |
| Website | www |
Thistle Hotels, run by glh., is a UK-based hotel company with a portfolio of 12 hotels, operating in the three and four star sector.
It was set up by Scottish & Newcastle in 1965, to combine its own traditional legacy hotels with purpose built hotels. Mount Charlotte Investments bought thirty four Thistle hotels from S&N, and acquired the Thistle brand name for £645m in November 1989. Debt acquired from the transaction surrogated Mount Charlotte Investments with no choice but to be taken over by Brierley Investments of New Zealand for £664m in 1990.
The chain was the main shirt sponsor for Leeds United AFC from 1993 to 1996.
In 1997, the company floated on the Stock Exchange, to become Thistle Hotels plc, valued at £620m. In September 1998, it sold 30 provincial hotels to Grace Hotels (owned by the Lehman Brothers investment bank) for £62.7m, becoming managed by Peel Hotels. In July 1999, it sold the Charles Dickens Hotel in London to the Ryan Hotel Group for £20m. In June 2002, it initially sold 37 of its hotels to Orb Estates of Jersey for £598m, continuing to manage the properties, but the hotels are eventually sold to Atlantic Hotels for £700m and operated under the Thistle name. In June 2003, the company was bought for £627m by BIL International, a private equity company based in Singapore (but registered in Bermuda) owned by the Hong Leong Group and the majority shareholder since 1990. Thistle Hotels was delisted from the . In 2004, it opened its Cumberland Hotel in London after a £95 million renovation, which operated under the Guoman brand. In May 2005, it sold six hotels to the Topland Group under a leaseback deal for £185m.
It used to be based in The Calls in Leeds, then moved to Uxbridge.
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Wikipedia