Feb 24 (Reuters) – Europe’s biggest hotel group Accor reported an annual loss on Wednesday, as coronavirus lockdowns and border closures plagued the group throughout the year, but noted signs of improvement in Asia, Middle East & Africa and South America in the fourth quarter. Accor, which runs high-end chains such as Raffles and Sofitel, as well as budget brands such as Ibis, swung to a 391 million euro ($474.87 million) loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in 2020, compared to a profit of 825 million euros in 2019. The French company, which operates more than 5,000 hotels in around 110 countries, added that 82% of its hotels were open as of end-December, compared with 90% at end-September. It also confirmed the swift rollout of the 200 million euros recurring cost savings plan announced in August 2020. ($1 = 0.8234 euros) (Reporting by Charles Regnier in Gdansk Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

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