Continental wants 27m-euro loan

The Continental Hotels chain, which owns 14 hotels in Romania, will contract a credit worth some 27 million euros in the following period in order to fund five hotel projects, Radu Enache, the company”s general manager told ZF. The projects include renovating the Continental hotel on Calea Victoriei (Victoria Avenue) in Bucharest, the Bulevard hotel in Sibiu, as well as building three new hotels, one in the capital and another two in Timisoara. Continental will use the loan to be taken out to build a two-star hotel in the capital city, nearby Gara de Nord (North Railway Station). The Continental chain is getting ready to tackle the two-star segment of the hotel market with an investment programme worth 36 million euros, to be used in building ten new units in the next two years. “The credit will be reimbursed in eight years, plus an 18-month grace period,” says Enache. According to him, Continental Hotels is under negotiations with BRD, Alpha Bank, Raiffeisen and Bancpost. “We may choose between taking the loan in RON or in euros. We thought about getting 60% in RON and 40% in euros,” the company official said. ZF