Reuters
May 8 2008

Fairmont to sell Singapore’s Raffles Hotel

Thu May 8, 2008 3:21pm IST
(Updates with confirmation of sale from Fairmont)

SINGAPORE, May 8 (Reuters) – Fairmont Raffles Hotels International
said on Thursday that it will sell its stake in Singapore’s landmark
Raffles Hotel to a consortium led by ex-Credit Suisse banker Mark
Pawley.

Fairmont, which is controlled by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and
U.S. private equity firm Colony Capital, did not disclose the selling
price, although Singapore media said the figure was around S$650
million ($471.7 million).

Fairmont did not name the members of the consortium. Pawley is CEO of
Singapore-based private equity firm Oxley Capital that specializes in
real estate, though an executive at Oxley told Reuters the firm was
not the buyer.

Singapore’s Business Times cited unnamed sources as saying the
overseas buyer was linked to a European family.

Colony bought the 121-year-old hotel for about S$200 million in 2005
as part of a bigger S$1.7 billion acquisition of the Raffles Holdings
hotel chain, the Business Times said.

Raffles Hotel, a Singapore national monument, was founded in 1887 by
four Armenian brothers. In its colonial heyday, its guests included
luminaries such as authors Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling and Somerset
Maugham.

Fairmont, which operates 88 hotels globally under the Raffles,
Fairmont and Swissotel brands, said in a statement it will continue to
manage the Singapore hotel after the sale. (Reporting by Daryl Loo and
Kevin Lim, editing by Neil Chatterjee)