By JAMES A. LOYOLA
September 26, 2010, 2:26pm
SM Hotels and Conventions Corporation, a wholly owned unit of SM Investments Corporation (SMIC), is planning to build at least four more hotels and centers to be able to have large enough asset pool for a real estate investment trust.
SMIC chief finance officer Jose Sio said they need to have at least seven properties to qualify for a REIT. The firm current has five assets including the Taal Vista Hotel, the SMX Convention Center and the Radisson Blu Hotel which is set for a soft opening today (September 27).
“That is a future proposition for the hotel business,” Sio said adding that, “for SM to decide to enter into hotel business, we will follow the same principle that we have followed in SM and that is to look at business in a long-term view.”
Sio said they will eventually pool all their hotel and convention centers into a holding company in preparation for its listing as a REIT. This will take a few more years since a REIT must have a track record of at least three years of profitability.
SMHCC president Elizabeth Sy said they are currently revisiting plans to put up a hotel in the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City where they had initially planned to put up a Radisson and Regency hotel in one building.
She said they are still planning to put up a hotel with 400 to 500 rooms and may stick with just the Radisson brand although nothing is definite yet.
The firm is also set to open Pico Sands, a 150-room boutique hotel for members of the Pico de Loro Beach & Country Club in SMIC's Hamilo Coast project in Batangas.
Sy said SM is also currently reviewing its planned venture into budget hotels. “We are revisiting that concept and we want to make it more in line with SM, how SM does things and the market of SM,” she said.
SMIC had earlier laid out plans to put up 14 boutique hotels with 50 to 150 rooms near locations of its SM malls nationwide. The company is considering building one in Fort Bonifacio if it wins the bid for the 33.1-hectare military lot.
Published in Manila Bulletin Sept. 27, 2010.
SMIC chief finance officer Jose Sio said they need to have at least seven properties to qualify for a REIT. The firm current has five assets including the Taal Vista Hotel, the SMX Convention Center and the Radisson Blu Hotel which is set for a soft opening today (September 27).
“That is a future proposition for the hotel business,” Sio said adding that, “for SM to decide to enter into hotel business, we will follow the same principle that we have followed in SM and that is to look at business in a long-term view.”
Sio said they will eventually pool all their hotel and convention centers into a holding company in preparation for its listing as a REIT. This will take a few more years since a REIT must have a track record of at least three years of profitability.
SMHCC president Elizabeth Sy said they are currently revisiting plans to put up a hotel in the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City where they had initially planned to put up a Radisson and Regency hotel in one building.
She said they are still planning to put up a hotel with 400 to 500 rooms and may stick with just the Radisson brand although nothing is definite yet.
The firm is also set to open Pico Sands, a 150-room boutique hotel for members of the Pico de Loro Beach & Country Club in SMIC's Hamilo Coast project in Batangas.
Sy said SM is also currently reviewing its planned venture into budget hotels. “We are revisiting that concept and we want to make it more in line with SM, how SM does things and the market of SM,” she said.
SMIC had earlier laid out plans to put up 14 boutique hotels with 50 to 150 rooms near locations of its SM malls nationwide. The company is considering building one in Fort Bonifacio if it wins the bid for the 33.1-hectare military lot.
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Published in Manila Bulletin Sept. 27, 2010.
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