New Century Hotel Group has agreed to buy the Chateau de Birot in Bordeaux
A hotel company belonging to a Chinese billionaire has agreed to buy a 37-hectare French chateau and vineyard in the Bordeaux region as the country’s nouveau riche progress from drinking wine to buying whole estates.
According to a report on wine industry website Decanter.com, Hangzhou-based New Century Tourism Group, which runs a chain of more than 190 upscale hotels across China has made a provisional agreement to buy Chateau de Birot in the Cadillac Cotes de Bordeaux appellation in the south of France.
While other details of the sale were not made public, the deal is slated to be finalised on 19 December, with Christie’s Real Estate brokering the transaction.
New Century No Stranger to Overseas Deals
Chen Miaolin, chairman of New Century Hotel Group
New Century is run by billionaire Chen Miaolin, and is China’s largest non-state-owned hotel chain. The Zhejiang-based firm already has some experience with international acquisitions, having acquired a hotel in Frankfurt, Germany last year for $11 million, which it plans to reopen under its own brand after renovation.
New Century also has some overseas backing, having receiving a $100 million investment from U.S. equity firm Carlyle in 2007. In July last year the company listed many of its mainland hotel assets through a public offering of New Century Real Estate Investment Trust in Hong Kong.
Chen’s holding company, New Century Tourism, has 132 hotels of its own and 60 that it runs on behalf of clients.
Wine Estates Increasingly Popular Among Chinese
Acquisitions of French chateau has become a trend among China’s billionaires and big companies, with Beijing-based wine trading firm BHC International Wine Assets Management just last week acquiring an estate in the Corbieres region of Languedoc-Roussillon for a reported Euros 6 million ($7.43 million).
In late 2012 a 45-year-old Chinese industrialist became the first mainlander to buy a a Grand Cru classified estate in France when he purchased Chateau Bellefont-Belcier, in France’s prestigious Saint Emilion wine-making area.
Leave a Reply