Firmdale Hotels, the successful UK-US luxury hotel business, has taken investment from a Scandinavian financial partner.
Lennart Perlhagen, founder of one of the world’s leading cancer companies, Novocure has taken a 20% stake in the business, paying a rumoured GBP300m for his shares. The move was revealed in recently filed financial statements for the UK registered business run by husband and wife duo, Tim and Kit Kemp. The move is understood to be the first time that Firmdale has taken on board a significant external investor.
A successful track record
The business was launched in 1985, and today has three distinctive luxury hotels in New York and eight in London. Perlhagen was already connected with the business prior to his financial commitment, via a relative who provides fabrics to the hotel group, via their Chelsea Textiles brand.
In its most recent filed accounts, for the period to the end of January 2024, the Firmdale business reported revenues of GBP198.2m, as it saw a rise in both hotel room revenues and in f&b revenues. Operating profits were GBP17.8m. The group’s average room rate was GBP562 per night, slightly down on the average for the previous year.
During the year on which it reported, the company’s business was negatively impacted by the disruption to the film and TV sector, as writers and actors went on strike. The expectation is that business will have shown a return to more positive growth, after that dispute was settled.
The Firmdale hotels have interiors styled by co-owner Kit Kemp, and combine luxurious finishes with distinctive, quirky touches that guests enjoy. London properties feature, for example, a stone statue of a bull terrier, and an orange squeezer in the shape of a helter skelter.
In London, the company continues to look for growth opportunities. It is currently working up a new hotel project in the city’s Bloomsbury district, where it took hold of a long leasehold on three linked properties in 2022. No opening date has yet been promised for the project.
Growing in the New York market
In New York, the company operates the Crosby Street and Whitby hotels, which were joined in early 2024 by the launch of a third property, the Warren Street Hotel.
During 2025, Firmdale Hotels will be celebrating its fortieth year in business. Established in London, it was not until 2009 that Firmdale opened its first hotel in New York, the Crosby Street Hotel. The US city soon embraced the flamboyant, bright style of Firmdale’s interiors. Kit Kemp says that style was born of a frustration from the hotels of the period: “Tim and I both hated staying in hotels and we wanted to achieve something that was rather different from a formulated, cellophane-wrapped experience, which is what we felt most hotels gave us at that time.”
