Hotel chain Von Essen sued for £1.5m

Von Essen Hotels is being sued for the £1.5m outstanding on its £10m takeover of a rival hotel group in 2005. The luxury country house hotel group, run by Andrew Davis, is being sued by the founders of Luxury Family Hotels (LFH). Nicholas Dickinson and the four other founders agreed to sell the OFEX-listed hotel chain to Von Essen for just over £10m. The deal to buy the chain, which comprised Woolley Grange in Wiltshire, Fowey Hall in Cornwall, Moonfleet Manor in Dorset, and Ickworth Hall in Suffolk, included a deferred payment of £1.5m, which Dickinson claims is now owed. The claimants argue that a special clause bringing forward the deferred payment should the value of the hotels fall below £4.5m has been triggered. In order to monitor the value of the holding company, the LFH founders said they were to be provided with quarterly certificates of its worth by Von Essen’s auditor. However, they claim that they did not receive the certificates after the first quarter of 2007, and that the £1.5m therefore became immediately payable from 10 August 2007. They allege that Von Essen has “wrongfully failed to pay” the sum. A spokesman for Von Essen that said it would be “contesting this astonishing claim”. Von Essen was founded in 1997 and owns 30 hotels in the UK and France.