In the tiny village of Måndalen at the end of a Norwegian fjord lays the headquarters of a highly active hotel investor on the Russian market. Among the hotels under the groups ownership is the Park Inn Polyarny Zori hotel in Murmansk, the Radisson Royal in St Petersburg and the Park Inn Sheremetyevo in Moscow.
All together the Wenaas group owns eight recently renovated hotels in Russia with a total of 3500 rooms. The Poliarnie Zori hotel in Murmansk has 266 rooms with 418 beds.
Due to financial crisis the results are below the expectations, but still the company continued their growth in 2011. The annual turnover is now approximately € 250 million, according to Norwegian newspaper Sunnmørsposten. The company invests both in ski resorts and sports equipment, but their main activity is investments in hotel properties.
The company is among the largest hotel owners in Scandinavia. Their strategy is to own, maintain and hiring out the hotel properties. In addition to hotels in Norway and Russia, they own hotels in Denmark, Germany, Poland and Sweden. It is especially in the Danish market that they have had a good development, while the Russian market has had a steady growth. In their annual report, the company believe they will have a continued growth in 2012.