IREIFS Private Equity Group to Re-open Bangkok Office

Paris based IREIFS Partners Private Equity is re-opening its offices in Bangkok after a 6 year absence.

Bangkok, Thailand, March 05, 2012 --(PR.com)-- When talking with Thailand based Mai-BS (Thailand), a hotel consulting company providing certain services for IREIFS, Pat Collins, Regional Director Asia Pacific based in Singapore said, “IREIFS has always had a strong belief in the growth of Thailand as an Investment destination. We are primarily a hotel and resort investor and we see strong potential for growth in this sector in Thailand over the next 10 years. The Group has recently allocated a US$200. million [THB 6,000- million] budget for equity investment in this sector in Thailand. Therefore we are re-opening our Bangkok offices at All Seasons Place.”

IREIFS owns or has equity stakes in 83 hotels and resorts world wide with a total of over 25,000- rooms, plus other joint venture hotel interests. The group also has interests in Gold and other commodities in Australia, India and Dubai.

“Our focus for the immediate future is 'destination' resorts in Thailand which we can match to resorts in our existing global portfolio,” said Mr. Collins. “With the economic crisis in Europe and USA global travelers are looking more and more to Asia and Thailand is number 1 on their destination list. We are talking middle to high end tourists who can communicate with their businesses easily with modern technology and are not concerned with cost of travel and accommodation,” he said.

“Currently we have a 65 key luxury hospitality led resort with residential Villa component in the design phase in Mae Rim, Chiang Mai, with a cash investment of around THB 750 million and jobs for about 250 locals. This will be completed by April 2014 and will bring something special to the market,” he said. “We are partners in a large [un-named] luxury Bangkok hotel and will use this as our base for expansion in the Kingdom,”

IREIFS Group closed its Bangkok regional office reluctantly in 2005 due to political and economic concerns and moved to Singapore where it has several investments in the hotel and retail sector.

“With investment offices in Paris, London, Cyprus and Dubai we have found that our investor clients as well as our private partners are seeking growth markets with stability, and Thailand offers this. Even when there are problems in Thailand it quickly bounces back from these and tourism is always on the increase, as was demonstrated at a recent AMCHAM presentation in Bangkok,” said Mr. Collins. “This just confirmed our decision to re-open offices in Bangkok.”

“Apart from Mae Rim, we have plans for a City Resort in Chiang Mai, and are looking at resorts in Hua Hin, Prachuapkhirikhan, Samui, Trad and Phuket. These will be partnered with our existing European, Middle East, New Zealand and Hawaiian resorts, as well as upcoming Australian acquisitions, to create a Global Lifestyle Resorts brand second to none for the discerning traveler who wants to escape Europe.” said Collins.

Currently in talks with several Bangkok based Boutique Hotel Managers/Operators IREIFS believes it will close deals in the Kingdom very soon. “Our people have been on the ground here for several months and things look very promising, we are back in Bangkok and here for the long term.”

Being a privately owned investment house IREIFS normally does not advertise its investments due to confidentiality issues but, “For Thailand we decided to open up a little as we are so happy to be back.”

“Thailand has been a friend to us in the past and we want to give something back now. We believe in Thailand and its future, so we will help anyway we can through investment, tourism and community service,” Collins said.

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Mai-BS (Thailand)
Klaus R. Rauter
+66813729290
http://mai-bs.com
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