LONDON: Pest control company Rentokil Initial Plc. said it is selling its training and conference division Initial Style Conferences to Alternative Hotel Group for 325 million pounds. The company will use the funds to reduce debt.
Rentokil, which had acquired the division in 1996 as part of the BET group of businesses, had said in September it is proposing a sale of the unit and there are 20 bidders. The division owns freehold of 21 of the 29 conference centres it operates.
Alternative Hotel Group comprises a group of investors led by Richard Balfour-Lynn, who heads property group Marylebone Warwick Balfour, owner of the Liberty department store in London and hotels across the U.K.
Rentokil chief executive Doug Flynn said the company decided to sell the unit because its operating characteristics are substantially different from other businesses in the company. The unit had generated pre-tax profit of 19.7 million pounds in the year ended December 2004 on a turnover of 91.1 million pounds.
Rentokil has other units like tropical plants, parcel delivery, office cleaning and security.
Initial Style Conferences boasts of a client list of BP Plc, Vodafone Group Plc, Hewlett- Packard Co., Xerox Corp. and BMW AG. Its business activities include conferencing, teambuilding activities like road driving and assault course, weddings organisation and hosting corporate golf days.
Posted
on : Wed, 30 Nov 2005 06:45 GMT | Business News
By : Chris Rowe
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