She’s been sold – again

She’s been sold – again

 

Fairmont Raffles Hotel Int’l sells its stake in Raffles Hotel to ex-Credit Suisse banker

 

THE Grand Dame of Singapore will be getting a new master — yet again.

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Fairmont Raffles Hotel International — controlled by Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and United States-based private-equity company Colony Capital — is selling its stake in the 120-year-old Raffles Hotel.

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The buyer is a group led by a former investment banker of Credit Suisse Group, Mr Mark Pawley, Fairmont said in a statement yesterday.

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While it did not disclose the price or name the other buyers, The Business Times reported yesterday that the group would pay about $650 million for the acquisition.

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The transaction is part of the company’s strategy to “monetise” its investments in hotels and real estate and will provide the company with “significant capital for future growth”, it said.

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The 103-room Raffles Hotel will continue to be part of the Fairmont Raffles’ collection of hotels and the company will continue to run the property through a management contract, the statement said.

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This is the second time in less than three years that the iconic hotel — which is gazetted as a national monument — has changed hands. In 2005, Colony bought the hotel and the adjacent shopping arcade as part of the entire hotel business of the then-listed Raffles Holdings for a total of $1.7 billion.

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According to BT, Colony later merged these assets with Fairmont Hotels and Resorts after Fairmont was acquired by Colony and Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Hotels International to create a single hotel enterprise, Fairmont Raffles Hotel International.

 

Source: Today Newspaper