The prospect of Accor SA, operator of the Raffles, Sofitel, Mercure and Ibis brands, swooping in to buy the French government’s 14.3 per cent stake sent shares in Air France-KLM surging as much as 7.4 per cent on Monday. Accor stock slumped, with analysts at Sanford C Bernstein & Co saying the deal may be risky for the hotel owner based in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.
“Air France-KLM currently has no CEO, no evident strategy to solve its labor crisis, and is highly exposed to rising fuel prices,” analysts including Richard Clarke said in a note. “While the strategic rationale for Accor is there, we wonder why this cannot be achieved by a commercial partnership.”
A tie-up with Accor would give Air France a commercial partner as its biggest owner, after Les Echos reported that the hotel operator is considering buying the French state’s holding.
A sale of the stake would lessen the threat of political meddling in the airline’s operations, while potentially inflaming tensions amid a protracted labor dispute. Fifteen days of walkouts that began on February 22 by pilots, cabin crew and ground staff triggered the resignation of former chief executive Jean-Marc Janaillac and cost more than €400 million($467.8 million).
For AccorHotels, an airline partner would help fill rooms across its more than 4,000 hotels in 100 countries. Buying a stake now would follow a 45 percent drop in Air France shares this year, the worst performance in the Stoxx 600 Travel & Leisure index.
Few hotel chains have ventured into airline ownership in the past, though airlines have taken stakes in hospitality companies.
SAS AB once had a stake in the Radisson brand, for example, and tour operators such as Thomas Cook Group Plc and TUI AG own many of their own hotels.
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