Accor : AccorHotels makes $500 million offer for rest of Poland's Orbis

(Reuters) - France's Accor plans to buy the rest of Poland's Orbis for 1.9 billion zlotys ($501 million) to strengthen its position in Central Europe.

Accor will make a cash tender offer priced at 87 zlotys per share to buy the 47.31 percent outstanding stake in Orbis that it does not already own, it said on Monday.

It bought a 20 percent stake in Poland's top hotel operator in 2000, raising this above 50 percent eight years later.

Orbis, established in 1920, is now the largest hotel operator in Central and Eastern Europe with a portfolio of 128 hotels in 16 countries.

"The proposed transaction will enable AccorHotels to accelerate its development in the region (Central Europe)", Sebastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO of AccorHotels said.

The offer period will run until Jan. 18, 2019, and once completed Accor plans to delist Orbis shares in Warsaw.

($1 = 3.7901 zlotys)

(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka in Gdynia; Editing by Jan Harvey and Alexander Smith)