AccorHotels to turn HotelInvest into subsidiary

PARIS, July 12 (Reuters) - AccorHotels, Europe's largest hotel group, said on Tuesday that its board had cleared a plan to turn its HotelInvest property business into a subsidiary ahead of opening a majority of HotelInvest's capital to third-party investors.

The project, which is expected to be completed by the end of the first half 2017, would give AccorHotels greater financial leeway to accelerate its growth, Chief Executive Sebastien Bazin said in a statement.

Bazin told Reuters he expected French and international institutional investors to be interested by HotelInvest and that he hoped for a valuation of at least 7 billion euros ($7.75 billion), which is the gross asset value HotelInvest reached in 2015.

($1 = 0.9037 euros) (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, edited by Astrid Wendlandt)