Impiana aims to have 20 hotels under its wings by 2015

MALAYSIAN owned and operated Impiana Hotels & Resorts hopes to have 20 hotels under its ambit by 2015, says its top official.

It plans to either own, manage or do a combination of both for these hotels that could be in Malaysia or abroad.

The group, with a hotel presence in Malaysia and Thailand, hopes to make inroads into the Middle East market by end-2010.

"We hope that in the next two to three years we are able to sign 10 management contracts," chairman Datuk Seri Farouk Abdullah said.
"Businessmen from the Middle East have approached us, we should be there (in the Middle East) next year to manage hotels," he told Business Times.

There are five hotels under the Impiana brand now, and a sixth - Impiana Kota Noi will open in December 2009.

On where else it would like to see the Impiana hotel brand, Farouk said that it would also like to be in Krabi and Bangkok in Thailand.

The group's hotel operation now enjoys a gross operating profit (GOP) of 30 per cent with its hotels in Thailand enjoying between 43 per cent and 45 per cent in GOP.

GOP is gross revenue (from rooms, food and beverage, laundry or business centre) minus the cost of operations.

The five hotels contributed some RM80 million in revenue last year.

Given the current economic environment and the Influenza A (H1N1) flu, Impiana projects that its performance in 2009 will be the same as in 2008.

In 2010, revenue from hotel operations is expected to improve by a tenth.

The Impiana group is part of the KAB Group. Hotel operations and property development each contribute 40 per cent to total group revenue.

By Business Times