US investment firm Colony buys Raffles' hotels for one billion dollars

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Singapore's historic Raffles Hotel and Raffles Holdings' 39 other luxury hotels around the world will be sold to US investment fund Colony Capital for one billion US dollars.The firms said the deal was worth 1.72 billion Singapore dollars (1.01 billion US), made up of 1.45 billion dollars in cash with the balance being the take-over of Raffles' debt.

Singapore government-linked Raffles Holdings has a portfolio of 40 hotels in 33 destinations worldwide, including the Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor in Cambodia and the Swissotel Hotels and Resorts chain.

Singapore real estate giant CapitaLand is the majority owner of Raffles Holdings. The state-linked investment agency, Temasek Holdings, owns a 61-percent stake in CapitaLand.

(ref.: http://uk.biz.yahoo.com//050718/323/fnk0b.html)

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So the Government now sells the historic architecture to Britons. It so happened the country is administrated by British in the last-last century, too!