Citibank lands Novotel financing deal

Citibank Romania, which is a member of Citigroup, the world”s largest financial group, has won a 16 million-euro financing contract for the construction of a new four-star Novotel hotel. The hotel will be belong to French hotel group Accor and will be located in Bucharest”s commercial and historic centre.

The bank and its client are yet to agree on the total value of the investment, however, with Accor putting the project at 33 million euros and Citibank talking of the higher sum of 39 million euros. This private sector deal is the first to be made public by Citibank Romania, after a break of a number of years, however the bank chose not to give any details as to the conditions of the financing project.

Citibank has been operational in Romania since 1996, but recent years have seen its market share in decline.

Accor representatives declined to provide further details for the moment. “I have no comment to make at this time,” said Andre Cantiniaux, Accor”s operations manager for Central and Eastern Europe.

Construction of the new Novotel hotel began this spring using the French construction company Bouygues. The hotel is scheduled for completion by 2006.

Accor is a market leader in Europe and one of the world”s most important hotel groups with almost 4,000 hotels in 140 countries.

Accor”s policy for Romania foresees expansion to 20 hotels by 2011. The Novotel hotel under construction represents the first direct investment in Romania by an international hotel chain. razvan.voican@zf.ro ; georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro