July 21 (SeeNews) - Bosnian hotel operator Europa has taken over Sarajevo's iconic former Holiday Inn hotel and is planning to invest over 5 million marka ($2.8 million/2.6 million euro) in its refurbishment ahead of the official opening ceremony scheduled for August 20, a spokesperson for the company told SeeNews on Thursday.
The hotel is currently open for business, with 170 rooms in service, however renovation works on all 220 rooms and out-of-order facilities will shortly be launched, Europa's spokesperson said in response to a SeeNews inquiry.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
She confirmed that Europa signed on July 19 a sales contract for Holiday Inn with Austria-based Heta Asset Resolution for an undisclosed sum. According to media reports, the deal price is 45 million marka.
"Heta as the single largest creditor has been mandated in the enforcement proceeding by the respective court to set up an open, transparent and non-discriminatory tender process according to the best bidder principle for its collateral. Numerous interested parties participated in the sales process for the real estate," the asset resolution company said in a separate statement.
Hotel Holiday Inn Sarajevo is situated in the centre of Sarajevo and was built in 1983 for the Winter Olympics. At the height of Bosnian war, the hotel gained an iconic status when international journalists filed news reports from the hotel while it was regularly shelled. The hotel's unusual yellow exterior has landed it on The Telegraph's list of the ugliest hotels in the world.
Holiday Inn was owned by the Yugoslavian state and then sold to an Austrian businessman in 2003, however in 2014 it declared bankruptcy.
The hotel was closed for business mid-2015 by the authorities. It was renamed to Hotel Holiday a few years ago after its license with InterContinental Hotels Group ran out.
(1 euro=1.95583 Bosnian marka)