PARIS— Accor SA shares were lower in morning trade on April 25,2002 after the hotel group confirmed it was planning a bond issue for later the same day. Before noon Accor was down 1.15 euro, or 2.51%, at 44.7 euros. The bond is likely to be an OCEANE convertible or exchangeable bond with an important restriction attached preventing bondholders from converting their holding into Accor shares at an early date. Earlier, dealers in London said Accor was preparing to issue a 570 million euro bond. It was reported that Accor has good reason to issue a bond because there are interesting acquisitions to be made in the hotel sector in Europe, especially in Spain and Italy and other groups have recently stolen a march on the group in the casino sector. Accor recently failed in its bid to acquire Europeene de Casinos which was bought by French casino group, Partouche. SOURCE: AFX News
