Kingdom offloads Monte Carlo hotel for $40mn

HOTEL SALE: Kingdom Holding has sold the Monte Carlo Grand Hotel for $40 million. (Getty Images)

Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) said on Monday it posted fourth-quarter net profits of 303.8 million riyal ($81.01 million) and sold the Monte Carlo Grand Hotel for 150 million riyals ($40 million).

Net income in the three months to March 31 rose 5.04% from 289.2 million riyals in the year-earlier period, it said in a statement on the bourse website.

Kingdom Holding, controlled by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, did not say in a statement who bought the hotel it had purchased in 2005 with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and Bank of Scotland Corporate.

"The sale of this hotel is in line with KHC's strategy to continue to realise value from hotel assets," PJ Shoucair, Kingdom Hotel's executive director for international investments, said in the statement.

Shares of Kingdom Holding closed down 2.27% on Monday.

Kingdom Hotel Investments, a subsidiary of Kingdom Holding, said on Monday it expected revenue from Egypt and the UAE to drive 2008 revenues.

The firm expects revenues per available (RevPar) room to rise 15% in 2008, driven mainly by its properties in Egypt and the UAE, said Sarmad Zok, Kingdom Hotel chief executive.

"We expect our system portfolio to deliver 15% RevPar growth in 2008 and we're on track to delivering that," Zok told newswire Reuters on the sidelines of a tourism conference in Dubai.

Kingdom Hotel said last year it planned to boost revenues by selling real estate, with projected revenues from ancillary property of $225 million and $280 million expected over the next five years.

Morgan Stanley this month cut its price target for Kingdom Hotel shares to $8.20 from $10.60. The stock closed at $7.2 on the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) on Friday. (Reuters)

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