Saudi Prince seals B4.3bn Phuket resort deal
Kingdom Hotel Investments (KHI), which is chaired by Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, have signed a deal to acquire land on Phuket to build a US$115 million (about 4.3 billion baht) “Raffles Phang Nga Resort and Residences”, comprising 150 rooms and 25 luxury villas.
The deal was made through a joint-venture company that is 80% owned by KHI and 20% by European Hotels Corporation Ltd (EHC), KHI’s joint venture partner in the Four Seasons Hotel in Marrakech.
The acquisition is KHI’s second in Thailand this year, with in May, with KHI buying the Crowne Plaza Karon Beach Phuket resort for US$98.5 million (3.7 billion baht), including US$30.5 million (1.1 billion baht) in debt.
Tim Hansing, Senior Vice President for Development, Kingdom Hotel Investments , said, “The deal is definitely still going through.” “We signed the deal on the evening of the coup and we heard about it, but we took the decision to also announce the deal the very next day, in line with our policy.
“We are very confident that the Government transition process will be smooth and the tourism offer in Thailand has not changed”. “It still has wonderful beaches and wonderful people”.
“We’ve invested into a $100m project in the Movenpick Karon Beach Hotel earlier this year, and we are very confident about this project in Phang Nga, the Raffles Resort”.
“We’re an emerging markets company, our eyes are open and we have full confidence that tourism will continue to grow in Thailand.”
The Raffles Phang Nga Resort and Residences will start operations in 2009 on some 240,000 square meters (150 rai) of land, approximately a 35-minutes drive north of Phuket International Airport and will include an 80,000sqm freshwater lake and 400 meters of beachfront.
Residential villas will also be offered for sale during the development period on a long-term leasehold basis and the sales proceeds used to partly finance the development, of which KHI states it expects to invest US$12 million for an 80% ownership stake. KHI will seek debt financing to fund approximately 50% of the total project.
Special Thailand Report by The Mole
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