AccorHotels CEO Sebastien Bazin has confirmed the company is weighing the possibility of investing in Air France-KLM. Media reports surfaced on Sunday that it was doing so.
Bazin said during a press panel at the NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference that Accor for the past few years has been in talks with Air France-KLM about developing joint digital projects and a joint loyalty and services platform. The company also issued a press release to the same effect late Sunday night.
"It is very early stage," Bazin said Monday. "We can’t deny that we did have some discussions. I still don’t know whether it makes any sense. … Do you need to be an investor to do digital partnerships? Of course not. But give me the benefit of the next few weeks to assess whether it makes any sense or not."
Accor has extra money on its balance sheet following Thursday's 4.6 billion-euro sale of 57.8 percent of hotel investment platform AccorInvest. Accor announced its intention to divest a portion of its owned hotel assets via AccorInvest, formerly named Booster, in early 2017.
Accor also closed its acquisition of Mantra Group for 830 million euros on Thursday.