Pearl Continental to invest Rs1.6bln for business expansion

KARACHI: Pearl Continental, Pakistan’s leading hospitality industry player, has decided to initially invest Rs1.6 billion to expand its business in the country’s industrial hub as it is relishing an increase in its hotel’s occupancy rate, its senior official said on Monday. 

“The company has decided to acquire a property at a prime location in Karachi against the total purchase consideration of approximately Rs1.6 billion for the business expansion,” said Mansoor Khan, company secretary at Pakistan Services Limited, the owner of Pearl-Continental Hotels and Resorts in the country, in a notice issued to the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

The Pakistan Pearl-Continental Hotels and Resorts (PC Hotel) will build another hotel in the city, where law and order situation has improved over the last one year. 

"Expansion means we will construct another building in Karachi, but I cannot disclose the location for some reasons,” another hotel’s official said, requesting anonymity. “We are already facing different pressures.”   The official said the rate of hotel occupancy has improved significantly over the last one year as the government launched operation against criminals and terrorists across the city.

“The visiting international or domestic businessmen and tourists usually stay at our hotels,” he said. “Improvement in the law and order has helped us in attracting more guests.” 

Khan said the expansion decision was made following the board’s approval to the land acquisition.  “We made the announcement at the bourse just after our board approved the acquisition of the land and gave a go-ahead for building a new hotel,” he said.

"In the second phase, we will prepare a feasibility report for the construction,” he added. “It is pre-mature to share a timeline about when the project will be launched.” The local hotel chain is already engaged in construction of two five-star hotels in the country. One is in Multan and the other in Mirpur of Azad Kashmir. 

"We have set a target to commercially launch our Multan hotel sometime during the next fiscal year,” Khan said. He said the construction of Mirpur hotel has been suspended since a court issued a stay order on it. “We are fighting the case at the court,” he said. “It will take around 18 months to open the Mirpur hotel for public after the court allows us to resume the construction work.”  At present, the Pakistan Services Limited is operating six hotels in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Bhurban and Muzaffarabad.