EasyHotel to open £8.7m hotel in Milton Keynes

EasyHotel has conditionally acquired a 125-year leasehold of part of Norfolk House on Silbury Boulevard, a central site in Milton Keynes where it plans to open a 124-bedroom £8.7m hotel by mid-2019.

The development has already received planning permission and the acquisition will be completed subject to planning being finalised at the end of the judicial review period.

Norfolk House is located just 200m from the main shopping centre and 0.3 miles from The Hub Milton Keynes, a major leisure scheme.

Chief executive officer Guy Parsons said: "We are delighted to have secured this site in Milton Keynes. Now in its 50th year, the town is home to many international business, has the third highest business start-up rate of any UK city and boasts an impressive range of shopping and leisure facilities.

"This acquisition is part of our ongoing strategy of offering comfortable, affordable accommodation in key tourist and business locations in the UK and internationally, and this completes the deployment of funds from our 2016 equity fundraising and bank loan.

"We continue to see a good number of attractive potential development opportunities, both in the UK and Europe to further accelerate the group's growth. These are both larger and more numerous than we had originally anticipated. Consequently, the board is considering its finance options, which may include new equity and debt, to fund more hotels."

At 1010 GMT, the shares were down 0.9% to 107p.