STRAITS Trading Company yesterday announced a new hospitality arm – Rendezvous Hospitality Group (RHG) – that will combine its hospitality assets and recently acquired hospitality management unit.
RHG will have a net asset base of more than $300 million, with 13 hotels already under management and four other properties under development. More growth is expected under chief executive Iqbal Jumabhoy, who was brought on board in March 2009 to restructure Straits Trading’s hospitality business.
Mr Jumabhoy said his goal is to grow the company’s presence to more than 12,000 rooms in the region by 2020, from about 2,600 rooms now.
While RHG will be based in Singapore, it will look to the entire Asia-Pacific region for expansion. Target markets include Australia and New Zealand, South-east Asia, East Asia, India and the Middle East.
Australia and New Zealand now account for most of the company’s hotels. Mr Jumabhoy said these two countries will continue to provide a solid foundation for RHG’s earnings. Growth, on the other hand, is expected to come from China, India, South-east Asia and the Middle East.
This why the company decided to shift the headquarters of its recently acquired hospitality management unit from Sydney to Singapore, Mr Jumabhoy said. The Sydney office will now be a regional centre for operations in Australia and New Zealand.
The group is poised to open three hotels next year – one each in Malaysia, New Zealand and China. These should add more than 500 rooms to its company’s portfolio.
As well as growing the number of hotels, Mr Jumabhoy intends to rebrand them. The group’s two brands – Rendezvous and The Marque – will now be marketed as business hotels. RHG will also invest more than $190 million in its owned and leased properties to refurbish them.
Straits Trading, which is more than 120 years old, has business interests spanning the Asia-Pacific region. The group is engaged in tin mining and smelting, investments in other metals and mineral resources, hotel investment and management and property operations.
Straits Trading chairman Chew Gek Khim said the launch of RHG signifies a new direction in the way the diversified group will be managed, with strategic business units being ‘engines of profit and growth’.
Source : Business Times – 22 Oct 2009
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