Friendly continues selloff to ease cash crisis

Friendly Hotels has sold the Quality Cadogan hotel in Bournemouth, Dorset, for £1.1m.

The hotel has 54 bedrooms and made operating profits of £100,000 on turnover of £800,000 during the year to 29 December 1999. Its current value in Friendly's accounts is £925,000.

Friendly will use the proceeds to pay off some bank loans. The buyer is a local hotel operator. Christie & Co was the agent.

The sale was Friendly's second last week. On Monday it sold the Quality Mansion hotel in Eastbourne, East Sussex, for £1.2m.

The group announced just before Christmas that it planned to sell off a third of its hotels as part of a restructuring plan to try to resolve its financial crisis.