De Vere has accepted

AHG Venice first expressed interest in De Vere just over threeweeks ago. It already owns Initial Style Conferences, ahotel/conference venue group, which it bought last year.Balfour-Lynn has a track record in hotels, with the Malmaison andHotel du Vin chains owned by Marylebone Warwick Balfour, theproperty group of which he is a director.

De Vere will pay AHG Venice a break fee of euro 10.78 million($13.51 million) should the deal not go through, Thursday'sstatement said. In addition, AHG agreed to sell De Vere's CardenPark Hotel and golf complex in Cheshire for euro 60.8 million($76.1 million) to Steve Morgan, the founder of homebuilder Redrow,which owns a 13% stake in De Vere and sits on its board as anonexecutive director. In return, Morgan has agreed to accept theoffer from AHG. The hotel is adjacent to Morgan's personal estateand was built by him.