Minor Hotel Group 'keen' on having hotel in Kuala Lumpur: Report

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 26): Thailand-based Minor Hotel Group (MHG) is already considering building a hotel in the city even as it is set to open the Anantara Desaru Coast Resort & Villas in Johor on Dec 1, reported The Edge Malaysia.

“We do need that hub here [in Kuala Lumpur] now that we have Anantara Desaru,” MHG director of public relations & communications Mark Thomson was reported saying.

MHG is the hotel arm of Thailand-listed Minor International Pcl.

The weekly reported Thomson saying that the “planned hotel” will most probably be a “new build”, but he also added that “MHG is open to owning the asset in its entirety or holding a majority stake”. MHG owns 60% of Anantara Desaru with a US$34.8 million (RM146 million) share of the US$58 million property.

Thomson also said that the company is “open to signing a pure hotel management contract”.

“It might be something like the AVANI brand, which would be very suitable in terms of its rooftop bars and large open spaces for meetings.”

The AVANI Sepang Goldcoast Resort is a managed asset and MHG’s “sole operational property in Malaysia”.

“As a company, we also want to move away from destination resorts, so we will be looking for hotels in city areas,” Thomson explained.

“The overall strategy of our company is that we want to cover each of the market segments. If you look at hub cities or main cities, if we have an Anantara, we still want to catch that four-star component as well. And so, we would be looking at the AVANI and also long-term stays,” he added.

MHG announced it is launching AVANI in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah in 2021. It will be a “new-build hotel” of 378 rooms and set to be developed by KTI Property and managed by MHG.

Minor International also owns Anantara Spa and Mandara Spa; and operates Asia’s “largest casual dining restaurants”, which include The Pizza Company and Thai Express.

It is also the distributor of brands such as Charles & Keith, Brooks Brothers, Esprit and Bossini, reported the business publication.