Mozambique: Westmont Hospitality takes control of Hotel Cardoso – A Verdade

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Mozambique: Westmont Hospitality takes control of Hotel Cardoso – A Verdade

2:38 CAT | 27 May 2020

File photo: A Verdade

With the sale by LAM and the Mozambican state of their stakes in the Hotel Cardoso, Mozambique’s oldest luxury hotel is now fully controlled by the Westmont Hospitality hotel group.

The Canadian-based group – whose founder is a prominent member of the Aga Khan community[ Ismaili community], which in our country also controls Hotel Polana – has a portfolio of more than 500 hotels on five continents.

“As part of the restructuring process of the State’s business sector, with a view to making it robust and financially sustainable, it was decided to sell the 25.76 percent shareholding held by the State in Hotel Cardoso SA, to Mount Garden FZE/Westmont International Development, Inc, the majority shareholder of the company, which expressed interest to that end,” the Order signed by Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosário and published in Boletim da República on April 30, 2020, reads.

A senior source at the Institute for the Management of State Holdings (IGEPE) explained to @Verdade that the state had received around US$2 million from the sale.

@Verdade also learned that Mozambique Airlines had also sold its 12 percent stake in Hotel Cardoso to the same buyer in 2019, for around US$1 million.

The departure of the state shareholders is related to the size of the investment required to rehabilitate and modernize the luxury establishment, which dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, and which neither LAM nor the state can at present afford.

This emblematic hotel, which owes its name to a Portuguese navy commander, Augusto de Melo Pinto Cardoso, who also owned the land in front of Ponta Vermelha palace, has been in Dutch, Italian and English ownership at various times, and has been under North American control since 2015.

@Verdade has learned that Mount Garden FZE/Westmont International Development, Inc., Hotel Cardoso’s majority shareholder since the departure of the British from Lonhro, is a subsidiary of the Westmont Hospitality group, which is based in Canada.

Founded and chaired by Majid Mangalji, a prominent member of the Ismaili community, 45 years ago, the Westmont group manages hundreds of luxury hotel units on five continents. Its portfolio includes brands such as Hilton, Marriott/Starwood, InterContinental, Hyatt, Fairmont, Rezidor, Radisson, Westin, Sheraton and Holiday Inn.

Closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the hotel management is unwilling to discuss future plans for Hotel Cardoso, but rehabilitation is expected to bring it up to the luxury standards of the rest of the Westmont group chain.

Curiously, another benchmark of Mozambican hospitality, the Hotel Polana, has also been controlled, since 2010, by an investment group which also belongs to the Aga Khan community [Ismaili community].

By Adérito Caldeira

Source: A Verdade