A planned 48 new hotels in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa are expected to help Frasers Hospitality reach its global target of 30,000 rooms by 2019.
In a Singapore Exchange filing, the hospitality arm of Singapore-based Frasers Centrepoint said that 21 of these properties are in places where Frasers does not yet have a presence, including such as Changsha and Nanchang in China, Johor Bahru and Penang in Malaysia, Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia as well as Berlin and Hamburg in Germany. "Reaching the 30,000-unit growth mark in the next three years not only increases our portfolio by 30 percent, but further anchors the group's presence in dominant cities worldwide as well," Frasers Hospitality CEO Choe Peng Sum said in a statement.
In Europe, the company's growth has been predominantly through acquisition. Recently, the company acquired and rebranded four boutique hotels in key cities and university towns across Britain: Avon Gorge Hotel, Bristol; Magdalen Chapter, Exeter; Montpellier Chapter, Cheltenham and Hotel Seattle, Brighton. These hotels will contribute to the portfolio of 35 Malmaison and Hotel du Vin properties in Britain that Frasers Hospitality purchased a year ago.
Frasers is also set to open its first properties in Berlin and Hamburg after opening in Frankfurt last year. (The 153-room Capri by Fraser, Frankfurt, joined six other properties under the company's Capri brand of hotel residences.) Frasers Hospitality Trust, meanwhile, recently bought Maritim Hotel Dresden, and opened a Capri hotel in Barcelona.
The company will increase its portfolio from four to 11 properties with more than 1,600 rooms in the Middle East. These additional hotels will open in Dubai and Doha, and the company is set to debut in Riyadh, Khobar, Dammam and Jeddah. Frasers will also make its African debut in Nigeria this year, followed by openings in Lagos and Congo.
Upcoming openings in China will include the 345-room Modena by Fraser Changsha this year and the 259-room Fraser Suites Dalian Europark and 174-room Fraser Place Nanchang by 2017. Hotels are also planned for Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, India and Malaysia—making up a full half of the 48 properties in the pipeline.
Source: Straits Times