Marylebone Warwick Balfour (MWB) is looking to sell its Malmaison and Hotel du Vin hotel chains for the third time in the last 18 months for a combined asking price of £650m, according to The Times.
It is understood that the quoted property company has instructed Bank of America, which was appointed just over a year ago to advise on a sale, to recontact interested parties.
The two brands are believed to have been placed on the market separately rather than as one package, with £350m being sought for Malmaison and £300m for Hotel du Vin, lower than the previous £700m combined asking price requested last year.
Both chains have expanded since they were removed from the market in September, with Malmaison due to open its twelfth site in November in Aberdeen and three openings in the pipeline for Hotel du Vin, in Poole, Newcastle and Edinburgh, bringing its portfolio to 14 hotels.
The company, which has acquired two additional properties in Canterbury and St Andrews to be rebranded as Hotel du Vin, said that it planned to have 14 Malmaison and 18 Hotel du Vin sites by 2010.
The group saw an attempted sale of the hotel brands fall through last year after it tried to float its assets in an investment vehicle called Vector for £2bn in June 2007, but failed to attract enough interest from investors.
The £700m disposal of the chains also failed, although it aroused interest from investors including Quinlan Private, R20, Lydian Capital and Permira, as well as Marriott International, which was believed to be close to agreeing a deal before it pulled out at the last minute.
In April, MWB was forced to delay the deadline for selling its assets and returning cash to shareholders by two years as a result of the credit crunch.
The strong rollout potential of the chains is believed to act in MWB’s favour, with Robert Cook, the chief executive of the hotel groups, having said that he was looking to expand the Malmaison brand overseas, with the Baltic States and the Middle East as preferred locations.
Analysts, however, have said that the asking price of £650m is still too high given the current economic outlook.
