Hamilton City's hotel stakes for sale

The sale of Council’s stake in the Novotel and Ibis hotels will be progressed following agreement by Councillors at their recent meeting.

The Mayor and Councillors received a confidential report on the value of Hamilton Riverview Hotel Ltd at their 23 February meeting, and as a result agreed to starting the formal share sale process.

This will see Council issuing a share transfer notice to the two other stakeholders in the company – Tainui Group Holdings and Accor – with the shares sold to them if they were interested and the right price for Council was reached.

The sale of the shares was signalled in Council’s 2009 10-Year Plan, and it also flagged up in the current 2012 draft 10-Year Plan which is out for public consultation from the middle of this month.

Council has held a 41 per cent investment in the company since 1998. Returns from any share sales, if they were to go ahead, would be used to improve Council’s financial position.