Saudi wealth fund buys 49% stake in luxury hotel chain Rocco Forte

Rocco Forte Hotels has plans to sell a 49 percent stake to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) in a deal valued at £1.2 billion (€1.4 billion/$1.5 billion), reported other media outlets.

Italian investor CDPE Investimenti will sell its entire shareholding as part of the deal. CDPE, which owned a 23 percent stake in Rocco Forte Hotels, is owned by Italy's state-backed fund CDP. It invested €80 million ($87 million) in the hotel group in 2015.

Rocco Forte and Olga Polizzi, brother-sister founders, will remain as executive chairman and deputy chair, respectively. The Forte family will retain majority ownership and control of the group, which currently has 14 hotels, reported Reuters.

Rocco Forte Hotels, founded in 1996, operates across Italy, Britain, Germany, Belgium and Russia and has 14 hotels and resorts including Brown’s in London and the Balmoral in Edinburgh as well as 20 private villas. The hotel group is set to open t