Regal Hotels International Holdings plans to transfer 1.89 billion existing shares to repay part of its debt to creditor banks.
The shares, which would account for about 27 per cent of the company's share capital, would be transferred in four equal tranches over a year beginning from the end of next month, the company said while announcing its interim result yesterday.
Regal Hotels belongs to the Lo Yuk-sui-controlled property development group Century City International Holdings, which became heavily indebted after the property market crash in 1998.
Shares in the company slipped 1.1 per cent to close at 18 cents yesterday as its loss widened to $69.1 million for the six months to June, compared with $32.4 million a year earlier.
The hotelier blamed the loss on the Sars outbreak.
Turnover fell 28.7 per cent to $342.6 million, down from $481 million previously.
