S'pore investors eye Asia's problem hotels

S'pore investors eye Asia's problem hotels

SINGAPORE (DPA): Singapore investors are shopping for bargains
among hotels in Asia's big cities as an oversupply of hotel rooms
hits the region, reports in the island republic said yesterday.

Some 250 new hotels -- most of them four-star and five-star
facilities and first-class resorts -- are currently under
construction in Asia, according to a report by property firm
Jones Lang Wootton (JLW). Most of the projects are due for
completion in 1997 and 1998.

"In many cases, budgets have blown out," the report said.

"Many of the inexperienced hotel players will be forced by
their banks to sell down newly completed hotel property."

"A number of Singapore investors... are looking very closely
at Bangkok" for hotel deals, a JLW official said in an article
published by Singapore's Business Times newspaper.

More forced hotel sales were likely in Thailand due to the
country's economic slowdown and a hotel construction boom there
which began three years ago, the article said, adding that there
were also prospective sellers in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Singapore investors accounted for most new hotel investments
in Asia last year, according to earlier reports in the region.

Buyers from the prosperous city-state also snapped up a large
number of hotels in Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

Among the country's most active hotel investors were CDL
Hotels, the government of Singapore Investment Corporation, the
Thakral Group and Singapore entrepreneur Ng Teng Fong.