BOAD approves loan restructuring for 2 Février Hotel
Friday, 08 March 2024 15:43 
(Togo First) - The West African Development Bank (BOAD) approved the restructuring of a loan granted in 2015 for the renovation and operation of the 2 Février Hotel in Lomé. The Bank gave its approval in a board meeting last Monday.
The BOAD granted the loan to Kalyan Hospitality Development Togo (KHDT SAU), a Mauritian company, to rehabilitate the recently nationalized complex.
Under Kalyan's leadership, the hotel morphed into a hotel that meets international standards of luxury and comfort. Left abandoned for several years, the hotel reopened in April 2016 under the Radisson Blu Hotel du 2 Février brand.
Shortly after, tensions arose between Kaylan and the State, leading to a change in concessionaires. According to reports, the tensions led to the withdrawal of Radisson, formerly Carlson Rezidor, the hotel operator that provided the brand image to 2 Février. This raised concerns about the hotel’s management and Kalyan's affiliations.
After Radisson exited the project, Dubai-based Emaar Hospitality Group stepped in. It signed an agreement with Kaylan to make the 2 Février a top-class hotel in Togo and sub-Saharan Africa.
The hotel again changed names, becoming the Address Hotel 2 Février. The facility was doing well post-Covid with revenues increasing steadily. Still, its old demons remain and it must face them. These include a debt of over CFA28 billion which the BOAD arranged in 2015 with other lenders such as the EBID, BOA Togo, UTB, or BSIC.
The BOAD, it is worth recalling, had disbursed CFA10 billion in 2015 for the rehabilitation project. Again, in September 2018, it came to the hotel's rescue when Emaar Hospitality Group launched a series of "comfort works." At the time, the Bank backed the works with CFA4 billion.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
