RIYADH, 12 November 2007 — Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, in which Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) chaired by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, holds a controlling interest, has sold the Swissotel Sydney in Australia for SR281 million ($75.1 million).
The 359-room hotel is situated near the Sydney Opera House, the historic Rocks, Sydney Harbor Bridge, and the Botanic Gardens, KHC said in a statement yesterday. P. J Shoucair, executive director for international investments at KHC, said: “The sale of this hotel is in line with KHC’s strategy to continue to realize value from hotel assets either through a sale or aggressive operational and financial management across KHC’s hotel portfolio.”
Recently, KHC announced the refinancing of the Four Seasons George V hotel in Paris with net cash proceeds valued at SR285 million going to KHC, the refinancing of the Hotel des Bergues, Geneva in the amount of SR375 million and the sale of the Four Seasons Hotel, London for SR550 million.
Last year, Kingdom and Colony completed a $5.5 billion acquisition of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts which was combined with Raffles.