The Park Inn hotel chain, which has been operating in Murmansk and other Russian cities for a long time, will be transferred to Russian ownership and a share of the price must be paid to the Russian state.
A large Norwegian-owned hotel chain is being sold to a Russian company, says a Norwegian online newspaper Barents Observer (you will switch to another service).
The Park Inn by Radisson hotel chain, which has been operating in Murmansk and other Russian cities for years, is being transferred from the Norwegian Wenaasgruppen to the Russian company AFK Sistema.
In Murmansk, the hotel is called Poljarnye Zori and it is located in the city center, a stone’s throw away from the main street, Prospekt Lenina. The hotel has been one of the best in the city and it has also been popular with Finnish travelers.
In addition, the chain has several hotels in St. Petersburg, two in Moscow and one in Yekaterinburg. In total, the deal concerns ten hotels and more than 4,000 hotel rooms. The Poljarnye Zori hotel has been operating in Murmansk since the 1970s, and under the Park Inn chain since 2009.
Forced discount from companies in “unfriendly” countries
Norwegian Wenaasgruppen sells hotels for 203 million euros. The hotel chain will have to be sold at a mock price, i.e. at a “discount” of at least 50 percent of the market value, because a law came into effect in Russia in December, according to which companies from “unfriendly” countries must sell their shares at no more than half price.
In addition, these companies must either pay 10 percent of the price they received to the Russian government or agree to sell the shares in installments. A Russian online magazine reported on the matter in December RBK (you switch to another service).
According to the Sistema company’s press release, the deal will take effect by the end of the first quarter of the current year, i.e. by the end of March, if all official permits are in order.