By RUTH BENDER AND NOEMIE BISSERBE
PARIS--Hotels group Accor SA (AC.FR) Thursday said sales in the
first quarter fell 5.5% as the group moves ahead with its
reorganization under recently appointed Chief Executive Sebastien
Bazin.
Accor, which owns the Sofitel and Ibis hotel brands, said sales
fell to 1.14 billion euros ($1.57 billion) in the first three
months of the year from EUR1.2 billion in the same period last year
as the depreciation of emerging market currencies weighed.
Stripping out currency moves, acquisitions and disposals, sales
rose 2.1% in the quarter, driven by improvements in Europe and
strong growth in Latin America and the Middle East.
The French hotels group is seeking to revive growth by splitting
the hotels group into two business poles: one that operates the
group's 14 hotel brands world-wide and the other focused on
ownership and investment in hotels.
Accor earlier this week appointed a new head of its HotelInvest
unit after hiring Vivek Badrinath, a former Orange SA executive, as
deputy chief Executive.
-Write to Ruth Bender at ruth.bender@wsj.com
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