M&L Hospitality Trusts may list in Australia

[SYDNEY] M&L Hospitality Trusts, the owner of Australia's biggest hotel, may seek a listing in the country after abandoning its initial stock sale in Singapore last year.

The trust, with US$1 billion of hotels in five nations, may add more properties before its next listing attempt, said Michael Kum, the chairman of the Singapore-based M&L. The owner of the Four Points by Sheraton overlooking Sydney's Darling Harbour dropped plans to raise as much as $463 million in April 2012 because demand was weaker than targeted, two people with knowledge of the matter said at the time.

"Whenever the market recovers, we'll look at a listing seriously, whether it's Australia or Singapore," Mr Kum said in an interview in Singapore on Tuesday. "We'll continue to look at Australia, at Brisbane, Perth" for acquisitions, he said of the state capitals of Queensland and Western Australia.