Shuaa buys land to build budget hotel in Jeddah

Investment bank Shuaa Capital said Monday its Saudi unit had acquired land in Jeddah to build a SR160m ($43m) budget business hotel, in a bid to tap into the kingdom’s growing demand for low-cost travel.The 254-room hotel, which will have 12,000 sq m of space, will be managed by Rotana Hotel Management Corp, the company said in an emailed statement.Shuaa did not disclose the value of the land, or the contract with Rotana. The plot was bought through the bank’s closed-end real estate fund, the Shuaa Saudi Hospitality fund.Real estate consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle said in May that Saudi Arabia would lead a regional boom in high-quality low-cost hotels, in response to demand from money-conscious business travellers and pilgrims.Shuaa, one of the Gulf Arab region's largest investment banks, was hit hard by the global financial downturn as impairments related to troubled assets erased profits. In the first quarter, Shuaa said it would cut 10.7 percent of its staff, or 39 jobs, to reduce costs following the regional turmoil which hit its quarterly results. The company posted a small second-quarter net profit of AED0.6m in July. From / Arabian Business News