Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Corinthia Hotel's Naudi on New Hotels in Brussels, Dubai(Audio)

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Corinthia Hotel's Naudi on New Hotels in Brussels, Dubai(Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: Broadcasting live to New York Bloomberg a leaven Brio to Washington,
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  Speaker 1: d C. Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg Well Undrege to San Francisco,
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg nine to the countries jos XM Channel one nine
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  Speaker 1: and around the globe the Bloomberg Radio Plus athen Bloomberg
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  Speaker 1: dot com. This is taking stock. I'm Kathleen Hayes along
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  Speaker 1: with him Fox Founded in nineteen sixty two by the
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  Speaker 1: Bassani family, Corinthia is a collection of luxury five star
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  Speaker 1: hotels that has evolved into multifaceted public company at trades
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  Speaker 1: as International Hotel Investments, and the CEO is joining us
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  Speaker 1: shortly to talk about where he is taking this global
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  Speaker 1: operator of mellowing the Corinthia Hotels but a commercial, real
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  Speaker 1: est state worldwide portfolio. Next, yes, we're gonna talk about
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  Speaker 1: the hospitality industry and luxury hotel development. But right now
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  Speaker 1: let's go to Charlie Peller in the Bloomberg Newsroom port
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Flat, and I thank you, Pim. The vals
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  Speaker 1: certainly have no reservations about moving higher. Today. The Dale
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  Speaker 1: the SMP nez dank All gaining SMP five hundred index
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  Speaker 1: heading towards the strongest gain in a month. Right now
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  Speaker 1: up nine tenths of one percent, up nineteen points twenty
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  Speaker 1: one oh four we've gotten has Dak up fifty four
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  Speaker 1: eighty eight, gain near of one point one percent, and
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  Speaker 1: the al Jones industrial average of one hundred sixty two
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  Speaker 1: points to seventeen thousand, nine hundred forty two for the DAL.
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  Speaker 1: That is a gain of nine tenths of one percent.
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  Speaker 1: The tenure down thirteen thirty seconds yield one point seven
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  Speaker 1: twelve sixty three, a drop there of point five percent.
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  Speaker 1: now on w t I West Texas Intermediate fifty thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: Right now it is hired by two percent, Brent at
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  Speaker 1: fifty sixty six, up by one point six percent. Macy
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  Speaker 1: shares up now by one point seven percent. CEO Terry
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  Speaker 1: Longdgren will pass the job to President Jeff Jannette in
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  Speaker 1: first quarter of two thousand seventeen. Londgren, who has served
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  Speaker 1: as CEO AT since two thousand thirteen, will remain executive chairman.
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  Speaker 1: So what triggered the shake off? That question for Punamgyal
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  Speaker 1: senior retail analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, Masic Samester sales have
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  Speaker 1: been down for five straight quarters most recently, and well,
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  Speaker 1: many may think that that maybe the trigger. They're also
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  Speaker 1: exploring real estate options to monetize their real estate, and
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  Speaker 1: we haven't really seen much come from that. So it
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  Speaker 1: may be that investors or shareholders are activists are looking
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  Speaker 1: for more on the real estate front. And right now
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  Speaker 1: it is to thirty two on Wall Street. That means
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  Speaker 1: it's time to take a look at some of the
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  Speaker 1: other stories from around the world on Bloomberg Radio. From
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  Speaker 1: the Bloomberg News Room, I'm Julie Hyman. UK citizens are
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  Speaker 1: voting today in a referendum on the country's membership in
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  Speaker 1: the European Union. UK law prevents this from reporting on
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  Speaker 1: voting or discussion and analysis of referendum issues. Wallpoles are open,
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  Speaker 1: Special coverage begins at five pm Wall Street Time, right
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  Speaker 1: today over a challenge to President Obama's immigration policy. The
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  Speaker 1: result prevents the administration from putting the program into effect
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  Speaker 1: during the rest of his term. President Obama spoke at
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  Speaker 1: the White House after the vote was announced. I think
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  Speaker 1: it is heartbreaking for the millions of immigrants who have
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  Speaker 1: made their lives here, who raised families here, who hoped
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  Speaker 1: for the opportunity to work the taxes, serving our military,
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  Speaker 1: and more fully contribute to this country we all love
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  Speaker 1: in an open way. The President noted that people who
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  Speaker 1: have been in the country for a long time and
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  Speaker 1: are otherwise law abiding will remain lower deportation priorities. Outrage
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  Speaker 1: outside the Baltimore court House where officer Caesar Goodson was
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  Speaker 1: found not guilty of all charges in the death of
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  Speaker 1: Freddy Gray while in police custody. Goodson faced the steepest
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  Speaker 1: charges as the driver of the van where Grace suffered
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  Speaker 1: those fatal injuries. Protesters to splayed shock at the decision.
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  Speaker 1: This is unjust and it is unacceptable. Where do we
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  Speaker 1: go from here? That's the question Bernie Sanders says he
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  Speaker 1: will focus on during his press conference later today here
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  Speaker 1: in the city. Sanders acknowledged yesterday that he realizes he
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  Speaker 1: is not going to be the Democratic nominee for president.
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  Speaker 1: Global News twenty four hours a day, powered by more
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  Speaker 1: than twenty six hundred journalists and analysts and more than
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  Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg, Charlie, and we thank you and again
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  Speaker 1: recapping stocks holding close to the best level of the day,
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  Speaker 1: with the SMP five hundred index up nine four a
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  Speaker 1: gain of nine tenths of one percent. I'm Charlie Pellett,
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  Speaker 1: and that's a Bloomberg business flash you're listening to taking
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  Speaker 1: stock with Kathleen Hayes and Pim Fox on Bloomberg Radio.
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  Speaker 1: The hotel industry will continue to consolidate as operator's seat
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  Speaker 1: to drive efficiencies and capture more customers, so says John Gray.
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  Speaker 1: He is the global head of real estate for Blackstone Group.
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  Speaker 1: They're the largest shareholder in Hilton Worldwide holdings. He said,
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  Speaker 1: it's more efficient to be a big hotel company. He
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  Speaker 1: was speaking last week at New York University's International Hospitality
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  Speaker 1: Industry Investment Conference in Manhattan. Here to tell us more
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  Speaker 1: about the hospitality industry is Simon Nowdy. He is the
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  Speaker 1: chief executive of Corinthia Hotels and he joins us from Malta. Simon,
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  Speaker 1: thank you very much for being with us. Tell people
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  Speaker 1: the connection of your company with Malta, and then tell
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  Speaker 1: us about some of the new things that you're embarking on. Well,
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  Speaker 1: Malta is an island in the Mediterranean and this is
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  Speaker 1: where the company was founded, and we started as a
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  Speaker 1: restaurant in nineties sixty two as a family business. And
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  Speaker 1: from these humble beginnings today count several hotels around Europe
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  Speaker 1: and elsewhere around the world. Something you sound some honest,
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  Speaker 1: tell us a little bit more. I mean, this is
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  Speaker 1: your five star luxury hotel. Give us an example. Well,
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  Speaker 1: what has it like to go into one of the
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  Speaker 1: Corinthian hotels. Well, our latest example, I think is the
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  Speaker 1: biggest manifestation of what we are really as a brand,
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  Speaker 1: which is the hotel we have just developed and launched
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  Speaker 1: in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. We acquired
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  Speaker 1: two buildings in London from the Crown, from the Queen,
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  Speaker 1: one of which was used as the Ministry of Defense
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  Speaker 1: for many years, and we turned it back into what
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  Speaker 1: it originally was, which was a grand hotel of the
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  Speaker 1: nineteenth century. And what we tried to achieve the a
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  Speaker 1: combination of the grand year of beautiful old buildings in
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  Speaker 1: London and across Europe with all the services and facilities
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  Speaker 1: one expect of modern hotels. So I mean tell us
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  Speaker 1: about the company. Do you manage as well as own hotels,
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  Speaker 1: and if you do manage, and tell us about some
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  Speaker 1: of your new projects. Yes, in that respect, we're quite
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  Speaker 1: different to some of the larger hotel companies actually because
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  Speaker 1: we we own our hotels. In most cases we are investors.
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  Speaker 1: We have a portfolio of a couple of billion. You
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  Speaker 1: were aware of assets which we've acquired over the years,
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  Speaker 1: mostly around Europe, and most times we acquire assets which
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  Speaker 1: require further investment and further development. So we are also
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  Speaker 1: in that respect developers. At the end of that process,
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  Speaker 1: we we are operators. We run our hotels as Corinthia,
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  Speaker 1: and we run hotels owned by other people as well.
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  Speaker 1: So what makes you different from other companies? Is it?
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  Speaker 1: Is it the is it the way you put these
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  Speaker 1: packages together? Or would you say, now we're we're like
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  Speaker 1: a lot of others. You certainly have achieved a very
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  Speaker 1: you know, the the value of the company, the value
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  Speaker 1: of the properties, and you seem you've kind of quietly
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  Speaker 1: and efficiently done this over the years. Oh, yes, we
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  Speaker 1: we the the value we bring really is being hands
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  Speaker 1: on and everything we do. So we tend to buy
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  Speaker 1: well across Europe, mostly into buildings which have problem situations
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  Speaker 1: around them from a financial point of view or even
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  Speaker 1: from a physical point of view. Our latest project, for example,
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  Speaker 1: is in the city of Brussels, where we've literally lost.
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  Speaker 1: A couple of weeks ago acquired a very famous building,
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  Speaker 1: the Grand Hotel Astoria, which has been shut and abandoned
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  Speaker 1: for ten years. And what we will do there is
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  Speaker 1: restored that property to bring back its former glory, but
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  Speaker 1: also to bring back everything that's expected from a modern hotel.
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  Speaker 1: What are you doing in Dubai? In Dubai, we have
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  Speaker 1: signed an agreement with a major corporation from from the Emirates,
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  Speaker 1: which is the maid Out Corporation, and together we are
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  Speaker 1: building a six star beach resort to be managed as
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  Speaker 1: a quarantine. So what kind of how do you develop
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  Speaker 1: these projects? What kind of financing do you rely on?
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  Speaker 1: Do you have private investors? And do you find in
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  Speaker 1: that in this changing world there is still lots of
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  Speaker 1: financing available for these kinds of projects. Oh yes, I
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  Speaker 1: think the problem is not so much the availability of funding,
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  Speaker 1: it's the availability of projects, which is which is the
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  Speaker 1: real which is the real challenge from ours perspective. We
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  Speaker 1: do projects in various ways. Some of them we use
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  Speaker 1: our own balance sheet to leverage our own balat sheet
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  Speaker 1: to raise our own equity and buy and develop our
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  Speaker 1: own hotels, as we're doing in Brussels. In some other instances,
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  Speaker 1: for example, we're working on a project in Rome where
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  Speaker 1: we identify an opportunity and raise funding from third party
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  Speaker 1: investors who become our partners or out trade owners of
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  Speaker 1: the projects we developed. Something. I just wondering if quickly
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  Speaker 1: you could just give us an update on your hotels
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  Speaker 1: outside of Europe. I know that you've got them in
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  Speaker 1: Cartoon and in uh Tripoli. Yes, well, the hotel in
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  Speaker 1: Cartoon is not one that we own. It's a hotel
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  Speaker 1: which is a beautiful hotel at the conference with the
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  Speaker 1: white nile on the blue nil right of the conference,
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  Speaker 1: which we built some years ago and operate in Tripoli. Sadly,
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  Speaker 1: the country is not in the best of shape. Tripoli
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  Speaker 1: is a neighbor to Morte, where we're from, but unfortunately
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  Speaker 1: the country is nothing the best of shape in terms
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  Speaker 1: of also the visitors visiting the country. But our hotel
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  Speaker 1: is still there. Fully maintained, waiting for the day stability
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  Speaker 1: returns to do countries. All right, simon, now do you
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us? Uh. He's CEO
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  Speaker 1: of the luxury hotel group, Corinthia Hotels, expanding in London,
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  Speaker 1: getting a property from the Queen. I wonder how that
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  Speaker 1: kind of trouble it was, and he says that's one
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  Speaker 1: of their specialties. Find a deal and turn it into
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  Speaker 1: a luxury location. I'm Kathleen Hayes along with him, Fox
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