Yu Guoxiang, a private businessman from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, has sent an application to the Shanghai Foreign Investment Commission to buy the city's first five-star hotel, the Hilton Shanghai Hotel, Shanghai Daily learned yesterday.
If approved, the 43-story hotel will be sold to Yu although it's not clear whether the application was made under his name or that of a company. The low-profile real estate tycoon used to own Yonghong Real Estate Co, which took part in the construction of the Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway.
But the company was de-registered last year, according to the industrial and commercial administration bureau in Ningbo.
Hilton is also the city's first overseas-invested five-star hotel set up by Hong Kong-based Cindic Holdings Ltd in 1988. Costing US$100 million then, it is estimated to sell for US$150 million.
Cindic Holdings and Yu's company have reached a preliminary agreement, according to a source close to the issue.
But the agreement won't be legal without approval from the commission.
Transactions involving overseas capital usually take up to 30 days to get a nod from the commission. The entire procedure, including registration in the industrial and commercial bureau, will take about three months.
(Shanghai Daily June 24, 2003)
