ACCOMMODATION - Hilton expands in Asia with a vengeance

TTGasia.com, Jun 1 - 7, 2007

One year after it bought Hilton International, Hilton Hotels Corporation (HHC) is going all out to expand internationally, setting a target of 1,000 hotels outside the US in the next 10 years, 300 of which will be in Asia-Pacific.
HHC has plenty of room to go global. Currently, 68 per cent of its EBIDTA (earnings before interest, depreciation, tax and amortisation) comes from the Americas. It has 2,800 hotels, but only 255 of them are outside the US. Asia-Pacific, with 51 hotels, accounts for only five per cent of its EBIDTA.

HHC president Asia-Pacific, Mr Koos Klein, said: “Asia-Pacific clearly is a big growth area.”Mr Klein, who has headed Hilton in the region since 1998, was previously hampered by the 40-year separation of HHC and Hilton International, which allowed him only the brand, Hilton and, more recently, under a strategic alliance between the two, Conrad, for expansion in the region.

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