Luxury hotel to be sold off

THE five-star Scotsman Hotel on North Bridge is expected to be put up for sale after the owners went into administration.

Bankers Lloyds pulled the plug on The Scotsman Hotel Group, which also has hotels in Leeds and Paris, over reported debts of £50 million.

But the 69-room hotel, which opened in April 2001 in the former home of The Scotsman and Evening News, was said to be “trading normally”.

Administrators said they had been called in after a breakdown in talks between the bank and the company’s ultimate owner, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber.

Industry experts predicted “a lot of interest” from potential buyers for the Edinburgh hotel.