Folio Hotels, the privately owned operator, has been rescued from administration in a deal that will see 18 of its 36 hotels plus the Folio name taken back by the former management team.

The management of another 13 hotels, most of them owned by the Landesberg and Rosenberg families and the Reuben brothers, will pass to Bespoke Hotels, the company that runs Home House, the fashionable private members club in London.

The deals, which were confirmed this morning, will preserve about 2,000 jobs. Administrators from MCR, the insolvency practice appointed in December, made 23 staff redundant at its Swindon head office just before Christmas.

The management buyout is being led by Matthew Welbourn, managing director of Folio, and Alan Murray, finance director, through a new vehicle called Mulbourn Ltd that is controlled by the two men and 13 senior managers.

The Times