Nakheel to focus on cost control

In order to combat the global slowdown Nakheel Hotels, with a $4 billion (Dh14.7bn) portfolio, this year plans to focus on three core areas – cost control, profitability and debt restructuring, according to its top executive.

"In 2009, we will focus on mitigating the downturn in profitability and cost control. We are also spending a lot of time with lenders looking at how we can restructure our debt. And we have had some significant success," Joe Sita, Chief Executive Officer of Nakheel Hotels, said yesterday while addressing delegates at the Arabian Hotel Investment conference 2009.

"We are working with lenders to try and restructure our debt. This year is all about survival, so our focus is largely going to be on asset management," he added.

The company is further eyeing potential hotel opportunities across the globe, according to Sita. He said while the company is not in the market at the moment for distressed assets, "we are on the lookout for opportunistic distressed investments".

Sita added: "We are preserving cash at present to ensure that our existing assets can function."

Nakheel Hotels, which recently opened its first One & Only Resort in Cape Town and bought into a Mexico resort for $315 million, plans to open its first 200-room budget hotel, easyHotel, in Jebel Ali Free Zone by the end of this year, easyHotel's founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou said recently.

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