Indonesian company sells big hotel

Indonesian company sells big hotel

HONG KONG (Dow Jones): An Indonesian company has sold an
upscale hotel in Melbourne to Sydney-based Southern Pacific Hotel
Corp. group, a hotelier owned by Chicago's prominent Pritzker
family.

The 384-room, four-star Melbourne Centra Hotel fetched about
A$70 million, according to Anthony Karp, regional director of JLW
TransAct Pte Ltd. in Singapore, which brokered the deal on behalf
of its Indonesian client Perfect Match Ltd.

Perfect Match is a joint venture between Indonesia's Budiman
family and businessman Sulistyo Winarko, whose interests include
PT Surabaya Agung Industri Pulp & Kertas (P.SAI), an Indonesian
pulp and paper manufacturer.

Karp declined to reveal details or the exact amount of the
transaction. Perfect Match and Southern Pacific Hotel couldn't be
reached for comment.

Perfect Match bought the Melbourne hotel originally in 1991
for A$52.5 million, Karp told Dow Jones Newswires. Southern
Pacific Hotel has been managing the hotel operation ever since.

Analysts in Indonesia said many debt-ridden Indonesian
companies are beginning to cash in their offshore assets to take
advantage of the rupiah's sharp depreciation versus the U.S.
dollar in the past year, and to bolster their financial position
at home.

Karp declined to speculate whether his clients were distressed
sellers. He added, however, that Perfect Match may still be
looking for buyers for a hotel and office complex in Auckland,
New Zealand.

Many Asian investors are divesting from properties accumulated
during the boom years in such countries as Australia, the U.K.
and U.S. which have "harder currencies than what they've got at
home," said Eric Levy of Horwath Hotel Partners, a regional hotel
consultancy. "It's a good time to harvest capital from overseas
and bring it home."