Home / NEWS / Front of House / Kingdom Holding may sell minority stakes in hotels

The company plans to focus on higher-earning properties

Kingdom Holding, the investment company controlled by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, and its hotels unit, may sell minority stakes held in hotels as part of a plan to focus on higher-earning properties.

Kingdom has a “handful” of assets where it owns a 50% stake or less, and it “will assess the viability” of those holdings and may sell them to reinvest in the same industry, Sarmad Zok, chief executive officer of the lodging unit Kingdom Hotel Investments, said. He declined to identify the properties.

Kingdom Holding owns a 50% stake in The Savoy Hotel in London, 35.5% of The Plaza Hotel in New York and 50% of the Fairmont in San Francisco, according to the Kingdom Hotel Investments.

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It also owns stakes in five hotel managers including Fairmont Raffles Hotels, Four Seasons Hotels and Movenpick Hotels & Resorts AG.

Kingdom Hotel will evaluate its portfolio of hotel assets as well as the hospitality and real-estate investments of its parent to “reconfigure the overall strategy to capture greater benefits,” Zok said.

The plan to possibly sell minority stakes will not apply to the five hotel managers, he said.

Kingdom Hotel properties include 23 operating hotels and resorts, and four under construction or in the initial stages of development, including in Seychelles, Marrakesh and Accra.