Luxury hotels owned by French businessman Michel Ohayon exit receivership

The Bordeaux trade court has approved the recovery plan for the three luxury hotels owned by French businessman Michel Ohayon, despite opposition from their main creditor, following a ruling which the AFP agency learnt about on Monday.

The hotels in question are the Grand Hotel in Bordeaux, currently operated by the InterContinental Group, the Sheraton Hotel at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, and the Trianon Palace in Versailles, operated by Waldorf Astoria (of the Hilton Group).

The properties are valued at more than €500 million in total, and are owned by Financière Immobilière Bordolaise (FIB), Ohayon’s holding company, via subsidiaries that went into receivership at the end of January 2023.

As indicated in the Bordeaux court’s ruling, dated February 28, FIB’s hotel division was developed chiefly thanks to the financial support of Bank of China, from which FIB received three loans for a total of €201 million, between 2014 and 2017.

The loan repayment failed when FIB, having gone into receivership itself, began to face significant financial difficulties, which it said were caused by the pandemic’s impact on its real estate income.

The latter stemmed from FIB’s hotel business and from its retail operations. FIB owned fashion chain Camaïeu, which has been liquidated; Go Sport and Gap France, both now sold; and 26 Galeries Lafayette stores, currently under a protection procedure they may exit at the end of March.

Bank of China, which was asking for the liquidation of the subsidiaries that own the three hotels, rejected the business continuity plan presented by Ohayon.

But the court deemed that the plan, following the amendments introduced at its request, was economically viable, and included sufficient guarantees that FIB’s subsidiaries would be able to settle their debt in four years.

AFP has contacted the lawyers representing Bank of China, notably to find out whether their client wants to appeal, but they have not yet responded.

A lawyer for FIB was also contacted, but didn’t wish to comment. FIB is still in receivership, since the trade court has recently extended its monitoring period, for a second time, by six months.