Kingdom Holding sells 90 % interest in the Four Seasons Resort Langkawi for USD90m

Date: September 2017

Location: Langkawi, Malaysia

Name: Four Seasons Resort Langkawi

No. of keys: 91 – 68 Pavillions and 23 Villas

Seller: Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) chaired by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, has sold its 90 per cent interest.

KHC continues to be a stakeholder in this property through it’s interest in the management company Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Kingdom Holding owns 47.5 per cent of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts alongside a similar stake held by Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment.

KHC’s global hotel brands include the Four Seasons, Fairmont Raffles, Movenpick, Swissotel and Accor. It has also invested in other global brands such as Lyft, Careem, JD.com, Twitter, NewsCorp, 21st Century Fox, Euro Disney, Time Warner and Citigroup.

Buyer: The interest was sold to Leisure Ventures, an affiliate of Singaporean-listed Hotel Properties Limited (HPL).

Price: US$90m

Price per key: US$1,098,901

THPT Comment: This fabulous resort, opened in May 2005, changes hands. The price per key is misleading as the property is some 40,000 sq. mtrs. As stated above Kingdom still remain in control with 45% ownership of Four Seasons.

HPL is a prolific luxury hotel owner, with 2 Como hotels in Bhutan, 2 Four Seasons and a Hard Rock in Bali, 5 hotels in The Maldives, 5 others in Malaysia, a Four Seasons in Seychelles, 3 in Singapore, a Four Seasons in Johannesburg, another Four Seasons in The Serengeti, Tanzania, 4 in Thailand and 2 Hiltons in London! Wow….

First seen: Gulf Business