SWISS-OWNED Movenpick Hotels & Resorts (MH&R) has discontinued its management of Karos Hotels Limited following its provisional liquidation on October 22 last year.
According to a statement released by Thomas Klein, chief executive officer for MH&R, the company ceased management duties on January 1.
The Karos hotels in question are the Edward Hotel in Durban; The Indaba Hotel in Fourways, Johannesburg; The Arthur's Seat Hotel in Cape Town; The Kruger Gate Hotel in Mpumalanga; The Richards Hotel and the Bayshore Inn in Richards Bay; Wilderness Hotel in Wilderness, Western Cape; Mont Aux Sources Hotel in the Drakensberg, and the Safari Hotel in Rustenburg.
Currently, these hotels are under the management of the three liquidators, Westrust, KPMG and Antrust.
"We're managing the hotels in conjunction with the general managers," said Ken Moses, administrator for Westrust.
He is positive that all these hotels will be sold . "The hotels were offered up for sale and a number of investors made offers which were not acceptable to the respective banks."
The banks are now negotiating their own deals.
According to Moses, the Investment Bank of South Africa will take up ownership of four of the hotels, namely the Edward, Arthur's Seat, Wilderness Hotel and the Kruger Gate Hotel.
"They will run these hotels together with their designated hotel management expertise until they get the price they're looking for," he says.
He believes First National Bank will do the same with the Mont Aux Sources Hotel. The same applies to the other hotels in question.
"As for the Indaba Hotel, Standard Bank is far advanced in their negotiations with regard to selling this property," he relates.
He declined to mention who the bank was negotiating with at this stage as "this may affect the negotiating process".
Moses added that the Indaba had quite a substantial forward booking, despite competition from newly-opened facilities at the nearby Montecasino and the new Sandton Convention Centre opening later this year.
"Of course the competition is going to affect business, but we believe we will still have strong support from the South African market," he states.
According to him, support from the international market may decrease.
Moses says the liquidators are still trying to determine exactly why the Karos Hotels ran into financial trouble but ventures that, among other factors, "overheads may have run a bit high".
He agrees that the publicity concerning the liquidation did result in a number of concerns, specifically from tour operators.
"However, the general managers of the hotels have embarked on their own marketing campaign to allay fears that may have arisen," he says.
Many of the gms have approached the tour operators themselves to personally address their concerns.
Movenpick has nevertheless indicated that it "remains committed to its decision to invest in tourism in South Africa and is in the process of assessing a number of exciting projects that are in line with the company's policy".
Klein says announcements regarding this are imminent.
(Adele MacKenzie)
