Caterer and Hotelkeeper – 7043

MALAYSIAN BUY

The Hyde Park Towers Hotel, Bayswater, London, has been sold out of receivership to Malaysian investors by the property agencies Christie & Co and Knight Frank & Rutley, who were working together on the sale.

The buyers paid more than £5.5m for the 115-bedroom hotel, which was formerly owned by Eruptstar.

Gerard Nolan of Christie & Co said the hotel was expected to achieve profits of more than £600,000 this year and thereforeit represented "an excellent deal for these investors,who want to see an immediate return".

PIZZA HUT PROJECTS

Pizza Hut, the jointventure between Whitbread and PepsiCo, plans to acquire a total of 40 sites this year for development into stand-alonerestaurants and delivery-only units.

So far this year it has acquired 20 sites, including three locations for full-service restaurants in Kensington, Kingston and Covent Garden in London.

The company's acquisition team is also looking for sites throughout the UK in retail parks, leisure parks and on busy arterial roads within a15-minute drive fromvery densely populated areas.

JARVIS IN CARDIFF

Jarvis Hotels has followed up its recent acquisition of Resort Hotels with the purchase of the Wentloog Hotel, near Cardiff, which was previously owned

by a Resort Hotels subsidiary.

John Jarvis, chairman and chief executive of Jarvis Hotels, said the company intended to build on the goodwill of the hotel and would consolidate its position as one of the foremost leisure and conference hotels in the region.