Far East to expand hotel chain in Malaysia: report

Source : Business Times - 8 Aug 2008

Hong Kong’s Far East Consortium International Ltd is keen to invest further in Malaysia and is in talks with four parties to expand its hotel chain in the country, according to a report in Malaysia’s Business Times.

The group is looking to purchase existing buildings or those partly completed.

Far East owns and operates the Dorsett Regency in Kuala Lumpur and the Grand Dorsett Labuan.

It also owns the Subang Sheraton and manages the Dorsett Penang.

‘We see potential in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, and are looking at Kuala Lumpur,’ Far East director of project development Winnie Chiu told MBT in an interview.

‘We prefer to buy. We recently acquired six hotels in China. We are keen on hotels which have been completed or which are partly completed,’ she said. Ms Chiu said the brand its potential hotels will carry will depend largely on the location and the product itself.

‘We prefer to manage the hotel on our own,’ she said when asked if it would consider handing over management to another party, like in the case of Sheraton Subang.

Ms Chiu said Far East is keen to continue investing in Malaysia even though the market’s contribution to the group is small.

Far East is confident of Malaysia’s tourism industry growing. ‘While average room rate (ARR) is one of the lowest in the region, it has had the steepest growth in 2008 compared to the past few years. With China opening up, we also expect huge traffic from China,’ said Ms Chiu.