Accor to bid for Tanjong Pagar hotel site

EUROPEAN hotel company Accor says it will put in a bid for a government land sales hotel site in Tanjong Pagar and will consider bidding for another site nearby.

Accor said it plans to build a 538-room Ibis hotel on the Bencoolen Street site it won in a public tender in December last year together with joint venture partner LaSalle Investment Management.

The Ibis Bencoolen Street, in which Accor has a 30 per cent stake, will cost $145 million and will be the largest Ibis hotel in the world outside Paris.

Other Accor hotels in Singapore include Grand Mercure Roxy and Novotel Clarke Quay.

Making the announcement yesterday, Accor Asia Pacific managing director Michael Issenberg said the company had decided to move its Asia Pacific headquarters from Sydney to Singapore.

Saying that Accor has 100 hotels under development or in advanced stages of planning across Asia, Mr Issenberg added that ‘Singapore is the perfect base to build and operate that network’.

Accor’s hotel brands include the deluxe Sofitel, upper-scale Novotel and mid-scale Mercure. Ibis is Accor’s economy hotel brand.

Mr Issenberg said that a flagship Sofitel in Singapore would be ideal, but Accor’s key priority was to be financially prudent.

Accor may expand its time-share Accor Premiere Vacation Club here, and is considering buying properties in Singapore to do this. Mr Issenberg said that Accor has had discussions with developers although nothing has been finalised.

For Accor, economy hotels are viable as the company believes that people in the fastest growing markets such as China and and India are more likely to looking for quality three-star accommodation.

‘There are many hotel projects in the pipeline in Singapore, but of the 7,200 rooms committed, only 10 per cent of this supply is in the economy segment, while 43 per cent is committed to the mid-tier segment and 47 per cent to the upper-tier sector,’ he said.

Mr Issenberg said that when Ibis Bencoolen Street opens in 2009, room rates are expected to be between $100 and $110.

Ibis is Accor’s fastest growing brand in Asia Pacific, with 35 hotels already operating and over 50 under development. In India alone, plans are under way to build up to 20 Ibis hotels in the next five years. Globally, there are 750 Ibis hotels in 38 countries, and the brand is set to grow by up to 50 hotels per year.

Accor also has plans to develop its other brands in Asia. Mr Issenberg said that it will invest US$200 million to do this. Opening in August will be its flagship hotel in China, the Sofitel Wanda Beijing.

Source : Business Times - 11 May 2007