YTL on the prowl for hotels in Asia, Europe

YTL Corp Bhd, a diversified group with interests in property and power generation, is on the lookout for hotels and resorts in Asia-Pacific and Europe to grow its hospitality business.

The company, which is sitting on a huge cash reserve of more than RM10 billion, wants to buy completed properties, or build new ones, and manage more assets, the resort manager for Pangkor Laut Resort, Jeffrey Mong, said.

YTL, through leisure arm YTL Hotels, owns and manages hotels and resorts in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the UK.

By July, YTL will open a boutique hotel in France, called Muse, a new brand on an existing hotel in St Tropez which YTL bought in 2007.
"We are converting the hotel from 35 rooms to 15 suites, with plunge pools and a spa, introducing our Spa Village brand," Mong said in an interview with Business Times in Kuala Lumpur.

YTL's wholly-owned properties include the Cameron Highlands Resort; JW Marriot Hotel Kuala Lumpur; Spa Village Resort Tembok Bali in Bali, Indonesia; Villa Tassana and Villa 13 in Phuket, Thailand; and Bray House, Berkshire, in the UK.

It has stakes in the Majestic Hotel in Malacca and Kuala Lumpur, The Chedi in Phuket, Tanjong Jara Resort in Terengganu, and Vistana Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Kuantan.

All the properties are managed by YTL Hotels, including Pangkor Laut Resort and The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur, which are majority owned by the Yeoh family.

Its latest management contract is for the Swatch Art Peace Hotel, a seven-suite retail-cum-hotel project in Shanghai, China, which will open in August.

YTL will also manage the Pangkor Laut Luxury Resort, Residence & Spa Village, a multi-module development on The World in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, from 2012.

On the home front, YTL will set up two resorts in Sabah at a cost of some RM200 million by the middle of next year.

YTL executive director Datuk Mark Yeoh Seok Kah had earlier told Business Times that it would open a resort on Pulau Gaya, the largest island in the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and the closest to downtown Kota Kinabalu, and on Pulau Tiga, off the western coast.

The two yet-to-be-named luxury resorts would have 132 and 75 luxury villas respectively.

"We will target travellers from Asia-Pacific and Europe. The islands have good diving spots. So we are confident of long-haul travellers," Mong said.

By Business Times