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.