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Istithmar Hotels turns to Asia

Istithmar Hotels will continue to consolidate its international presence in the hotel industry with an increased focus on Asia in 2007.

Chief executive Joe Sita said the company had established a presence in North America's hotel industry since he joined the company.
"Since I joined last April, we have taken ownership of the W Hotel in Union Square in New York, the Hotel Washington in Washington DC, and we also bought the Knickerbocker building in Time Square, which is currently an office building which we are developing and turning into a five star hotel," he said.

Already a joint partner with Kerzner International on the Atlantis, The Palm project in Dubai, Istithmar had also established a presence in the European market in the past year, Sita added.

"In the pipeline, now that we have taken quite a large stake in the established markets of Europe and North America, our focus is turning to Asia," he said.

"We will soon announce quite a lot of things in Asia that we have been working on for the past three or four months, and that is a large part of our focus in 2007 as we balance our portfolio."

Istithmar Hotels has been in the news recently for its joint venture with entrepreneur Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou to develop easyHotel.com properties across the Middle East, Levant, North Africa, India and Pakistan.

The company is investing more than US $400 million over the next five years to build 38 properties in 17 countries.

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