HAS CDL Hotels International's spending spree come to a halt with its $690 million purchase of the Regent of Kuala Lumpur? Much depends on the final structure of the deal in Malaysia and what other value-for-money hotel packages CDL discovers around the world.
To gain approval from the Foreign Investment Committee of Malaysia for a deal in which it buys Malaysian land, bricks and mortar, CDL needs to find at least one Malaysian partner.
The terms of this still-assembling partnership will determine how much money CDL needs to put down to close the deal.
In March last year, Hongkong-listed CDL tapped the market for funds, raising $686 million in a five-for-eight rights issue that took its war chest to $1 billion in cash.
Since then the company has bought into a New Zealand investment vehicle that is looking to invest in the antipodean hotel and resort sector; bought the Gloucester Hotel in London for $810 million; and with Asean Resources Holdings, bought a 75 per cent stake in Hongkong's Hotel Nikko for $400 million in cash and a commitment to shoulder about $750 million in debt.
The series of deals leaves CDL with about $240 million in the war chest.
The plan to pay cash for half of a 60 per cent stake in the Regent of Kuala Lumpur would use up most of remaining kitty and might put the company into consolidation mode.