Gulf hospitality still lures private equity as Colony eyes MENA
Colony Capital chairman and chief executive Thomas J Barrack has said that his firm will look for investments in the hospitality and consumer sectors throughout the Gulf over the next five years.
The largest shareholder in French group Carrefour and hospitality group Accor, Barrack said, “We have eight new Accor hotels that are being built in Saudi Arabia; we've got Carrefours being built in almost every GCC country," he said. "We have tens of millions of euros of investments going into these growing platforms, mostly in hospitality and consumer goods."
Colony will reportedly expand its existing platforms “to take advantage of MENA-based consumption and growth in the GCC.” Barrack expects financing for real estate projects in the region to improve with time. Colony has already collaborated with Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Hotels, backed by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz, on their joint investment into Singapore's Raffles Holdings.
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