Marriott International CEO Arne Sorenson recently sat down for an interview with Bloomberg’s Street Smart team to go over the company’s acquisition of Protea Hotel Group, which will fuel its growth in Africa.
Sorenson told Street Smart anchors Trish Regan and Adam Johnson that Marriott hopes to close the deal, which will add Protea’s 116 hotels to Marriott’s global management portfolio, in early 2014 and explained that partnerships are imperative to developing pipelines in other countries.
Although Sorenson wouldn’t give hard numbers on the Protea deal, he did say that media reports about “a couple hundred thousand” dollars is not an unreasonable estimate. The Marriott leader also said that the company will keep the Protea brand across most of the acquired properties, with the exception of three-five existing assets that can covert to Marriott’s established brands.
Sorenson also commented on the upcoming Hilton IPO and said that it was “overwhelmingly good news” for Marriott and said he is happy to see Hilton come back to the market. Sorenson believes that Hilton’s IPO will make information about the competing hotel company more accessible and will make the hospitality space more relevant in the market.
To see the full interview, check out the video above.
