Lih Pao Group (麗寶集團), a major construction company, will invest NT$2.5 billion (US$75.23 million) this year in building a hotel and shopping mall at Yamay Recreation World (月眉育樂世界) because the firm is upbeat about economic recovery and increasing numbers of Chinese tourists, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
Yamay general manager Chen Chi-hong (陳志鴻) announced the investment on Saturday when the resort, located in Taichung County, celebrated its 10th anniversary and the opening of its Mala Water Park (馬拉灣水上樂園).
Yamay also plans to relaunch its initial public offering (IPO) in 2012 and apply to become a publicly traded company, the paper said.
“Yamay will actively adjust its structure, move toward a multi-purpose leisure and recreational center and solicit gambling operators to set up shop,” Chen was quoted as saying.
Yamay plans to raise about NT$1 billion in capital via the issuance of shares, which Lih Pao Group intended to acquire, Chen said.
Yamay has a registered capital of NT$5.5 billion and a paid-in capital of NT$2.6 billion, he said, adding that it would gradually boost its capital.
Yamay re-elected its board of directors and supervisors at the beginning of this year after the Taichung District Court ruled at the end of last year that Yamay had completed its restructuring. Because Lih Pao holds a 99.98 percent stake in Yamay, Lih Pao chairman Wu Pao-tien (吳寶田) was elected to replace Ever-Fortune Corp (長億集團) chairman Yang Tien-sheng (楊天生) as chairman of Yamay.
Under the new plan, Lih Pao plans to invest NT$1 billion in a 220-room Yamay Fullon Hotel (月眉福容飯店), which is expected to be completed in two years, Chen said.
It will be the 12th hotel operated by Fullon Hotels and Resorts (福容大飯店), an affiliate of Lih Pao, when it is completed.
Aside from the hotel, Lih Pao will invest NT$1.5 billion in a shopping mall, with a space of roughly 17,000 ping (56,000m²) that will include shops, a movie theater and an agricultural product display center.
Lih Pao has been diversifying into the hospitality sector in recent years. Fullon Hotels and Resorts, which was sestablished four years ago, already has five hotels across the country. Fullon plans to open four more hotels in Kenting, Linkou, Hualien and Kaohsiung in two years.
In the next three years, Lih Pao plans to own and operate 16 chain hotels around the nation, with a total of 4,000 rooms, to become the nation’s largest hotel chain operator.
Last December, Lih Pao signed a memorandum of understanding with Australian gaming group Crown Ltd to establish a NT$10 billion casino at Yamay.
It was estimated that 900,000 people visited Yamay last year. After its renovation, Yamay expects to attract 1.2 million visitors this year, up by 30 percent from last year. Yamay’s revenue target this year is around NT$550 million.
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