Kingdom Hotels seeks $500m in project finance

Dubai: Kingdom Hotel Investments, controlled by Saudi Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal, said yesterday it would raise $500 million in project finance to help pay off debt and free up cash for acquisitions.

Dubai-based Kingdom may spend less on acquisitions in 2008 than the $1 billion it spent in each of the last two years, and could consider borrowing to finance purchases including hotels in China, chief executive officer Sarmad Zok told reporters.

The company had invested the $397 million it raised in an initial public offering last year and was not considering selling more shares, Zok said on the sidelines of Middle East Economic Digest's (MEED) Capital Markets conference in Dubai. "We are under-leveraged... as a company we have potential for corporate debt," he said.

Plans

The company plans to buy as many as 15 hotels in "second tier" Chinese cities in three to five years, Zok said.

The money raised over the next two years will be used to repay debt on 16 investments in Egypt and Asia, Zok said. About $100 million will be raised this year, he said.

Deal: KHC sells off Four Seasons in London

Kingdom Holding Company, chaired by Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal, announced the sale of the Four Seasons Hotel, London for 550 million Saudi riyals. The sale comes in light of KHC's objectives to continue to monetise and extract value out of the company's hotel portfolio, a statement said.

Earlier this year, Al Waleed entered a 14 billion riyal deal with other partners to acquire the property in Mayfair.

- Mariam Al Hakeem, Correspondent