Entrepreneur Richard Balfour Lynn has cancelled the sale of his Hotel du Vin and Malmaison hotel chains due to the recent turmoil in the financial markets.
The sale of the two hotel chains was expected to raise 700 million, but has been pulled "as a result of the current uncertainties in the markets", said Balfour Lynn in a statement.
Among those bidding were Robert Tchenguiz's R20 company, Permira and Lydian Capital.
However, offers of around 600 million, due to the limit on raising more debt from the markets were too low in Balfour Lynn's opinion. They have led to the postponement of the sale.
Balfour Lynn is now likely to wait for current conditions to ease before instigating another auction.