Thai real estate and investment company Singha Estate has formed a fifty-fifty joint venture with FICO group, another Thai company, to invest in the United Kingdom's hotel sector paying £160 million for a portfolio of 32 hotels.
The company reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand yesterday that its wholly owned subsidiary S Hotels and Resorts (UK) on October 1st acquired a stake in a new JV called FS JV Co with registered capital of one million pounds.
The British business, known as Jupiter Hotels, owns and manages 26 hotels spread out across the UK and operating under the Accor’s Mercure franchise. Also in the portfolio are a further five hotels branded as Dragonfly Hotels, and one independent hotel, called the Talbot, most of the properties are owned freehold.
Singha Estate is the property arm of Thailand’s Boon Rawd Brewery Company owned by the Bhirombhakdi family.
Earlier this year the company's chief executive Naris Cheyklin said they planned to spend around £2bn on hotels and property projects over the next five years to offset higher taxes and curbs on alcohol consumption.
