Holding firm ventures in hotel business

MANILA, Philippines - Listed holding firm Bacnotan Consolidated Industries, Inc. said it is investing P76.2 million in a new hotel that will be built at the SM Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City. In the investment will be in the form of equity in Coral Way Hotel City Corp., Bacnotan said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange. Coral Way will operate the 150-room Microtel Hotel, one of the hotels planned in the mall complex. Bacnotan directors approved the investment in the form of 10% cumulative convertible preferred shares in the hotel firm. Bacnotan is a member of the Phinma (Philippine Investment-Management, Inc.) Group of companies, which is in the hotel business through Microtel Inns & Suites (Pilipinas), Inc, operator of the Microtel international hotel chain in the country. There are five currently Microtel Inns in the country located in Baguio, Tarlac, Cavite, Batangas, Boracay, Davao and Cabanatuan. The new hotel to be built in the Bay area will be the biggest, so far. Aside from the Microtel Hotel, the mall complex of the Sy family will have two other hotels -- the Regent Manila Bay City housed within the Radisson Hotel Manila Bay City. Early this year, SM Investment Corporation signed an agreement with Singapore’s Carlson Hotels Worldwide Asia-Pacific for Carlson to operate these hotels. Bacnotan also has business interests in steel, energy, property, education and housing. - Veronica C. Silva, GMANews.TV