CDL Hotels International will bid for a hotel at the new airport but otherwise has no other big plans for Hong Kong because of the low yield on hotel investment in the territory.
Singapore, on the other hand, promises the company a six to seven per cent growth in turnover because of its acquisition of the Harbour View Dai-Ichi Hotel - approved at yesterday's extraordinary general meeting.
The company has barely slowed its global shopping spree for hotels, expanding its portfolio of hotels from five in 1989 to 34 last year.
Executive director Gan Khai Choon said the returns from building a hotel in Hong Kong was only a few per cent, much less than for office development.
'We put in our name along with other bidders for an airport hotel, but it's a development that'll take some five years to finish,' Mr Gan said.
CDL has only one hotel in Hong Kong, the Hotel Nikko Hong Kong. Its overseas hotels span eight countries.
A room in Hotel Nikko is valued at HK$5 million but a room in the newly acquired Dai-Ichi Hotel cost about S$297,000 (about HK$1.64 million).